Journey of the Maelstrom Rider
by hussbek
Summary: Konoha now trusts Naruto after so long and he wants to protect them even more than ever but feels his strength still isn't enough, now a stranger gives him the option to go on a journey to learn what it means to be strong...to be a Kamen Rider who protects all! Naruto will now travel to help others and learn a few things for himself. Naruharem, Xover with Games and Anime
1. Getting into Gear

**Journey of the Maelstrom Rider**

**Prologue: Getting into Gear**

As the sun slowly sets on the Hidden Leaf village, Naruto was currently situated at the Hokage Mountain, sitting atop of the head of the Fourth Hokage or to be more specific…his father Minato Namikaze. He has been through a lot today, returning from Sage training over at Mt Myoboku only to come upon a majority of the village having been demolished by Pein who was the leader of the Akatsuki. Naruto angrily took him on and was able to destroy most of the Paths but the tides of the battle went in favor of the enemy and he was literally pinned down.

He was about to be taken away when an interruption in the form of Hinata Hyuuga appeared to fight Pein. Naruto pleaded with the girl to run away otherwise she would be killed, Hinata refused to do so and remained determined to save him…to the point that she even confessed her love for him. Naruto couldn't believe what he heard and watched as she valiantly fought Pein with everything she had but was beaten to the ground and stabbed before his very eyes. Before him laid the girl who he thought of as strange since their younger days, this girl never once said anything bad about him and actually admired him despite his shortcomings. The things which his friends had told him about how hard she trained to attain his attention and even shared his ninja way hit him very hard, for once his thick-headedness has cleared enough for him to realize that Hinata wasn't being weird but rather shy especially when around him.

It was this epiphany which lead to one of the rare times that Naruto actually hated somebody with all his being and the target of that hatred was none other than Pein himself, however this also led to him being possessed by the Kyuubi and went on a rampage. He was about to release the Bijuu when he was stopped by someone no one would have expected…the Fourth Hokage himself or rather a chakra avatar of him. Naruto was shocked upon learning that he was his father, angry at him for sealing the Kyuubi into him, and happy that his father was proud and loved him all the same.

After Minato helped repair the seal along with transferring memories for him to recall later, Naruto went to battle Pein once more and this time emerged victorious. He went on to locate the one who had been controlling the Six Paths with use of the Sage Mode and met two of the members, namely Nagato and Konan who were once students of Jiraiya. They had a talk over their ideals and Naruto was able to convince Nagato to the point that he used a forbidden jutsu to resurrect the ones killed at the cost of his life. Nagato entrusted his faith to Naruto before dying and Konan took him away along with the body of the first Path to be buried, but not before giving the blond ninja a bouquet of flowers.

Naruto tiredly made his way back to the village and was met halfway by a revived Kakashi who carried back, there he was actually welcomed by villagers much to his shock. Apparently they had been waiting for him, Naruto didn't know how to react to this…he had always wanted the villagers to look at him with respect and now he has achieved it even before becoming Hokage, he also saw that Hinata was alive and well much to his joy. Naruto recalled when Iruka was treating him to Ichiraku ramen, that he had been changing the village's view of him ever since he became a Genin and now the eyes of loathing are no longer aimed towards him.

Naruto let out a sigh as he looked down at the village with a soft smile "I'm glad that all this turned out okay in the end, if only Baa-chan would wake up from her coma," he recalled with concern when he heard that Tsunade had gone into a coma due to straining herself to healing the injured during the attack "Even with Sage mode, I still struggled to win and many lives were almost lost," he then recalled the horrifying image of how Hinata had almost died in front of him, he could now see why Kakashi would go to stand before the Memorial Stone for hours to reminisce the past, he doesn't want to go through something like that again "I wish there's another way to become stronger than I am now, how can I be able to adhere to what Haku told me with this level of strength? I've already lost many like Hokage-jiji, Ero-sennin and many others. I don't want to lose anymore,"

"Is that so?" a voice suddenly spoke up from behind Naruto, surprising the blond ninja as he quickly shot to his feet and armed himself with a kunai to face the source of the voice.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Naruto yelled out while in full alert.

Someone walked out from behind a boulder, wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, black trousers and shoes, a long unbuttoned khaki overcoat, a pair of eyeglasses, and a khaki fisher's hat.

"Who are you?" asked Naruto cautiously.

"I am Narutaki, a prophet and traveler of worlds," said the man.

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at the man's introductions "Traveler of worlds? How can that be?" the only worlds he can think of would be the summoning realms and nothing more than that.

Narutaki chuckled in amusement "I can understand your skepticism, after it's to be expected that a denizen of his own world would be unaware that there are others besides his own,"

"You're not making any sense right now, and what are you doing here anyway?"

"I was merely passing through…*Heh* to think that I would be using his line, when I overheard of your plight and it had me a bit curious,"

"Curious how?" asked Naruto confusedly.

"Curious to ask you a question,"

"What would that question be?"

"If you possess a power so great that it would turn the world against you, will you become a savior or a destroyer?" asked Narutaki.

Naruto placed a hand on his stomach where the seal containing the Kyuubi is, remembering how that power helped him in dire situations, but he also recalled how he tended to lose control over the destructive power and hurt one of his loved ones. It was what further pushed to becoming stronger on his own terms.

And so he responded to the mysterious man "I would rather be a savior but I wouldn't rely on such a power if I don't know how to control it. I want to protect my loved ones with my own strength,"

Narutaki smiled upon hearing this "Seeking strength to protect…different yet similar to him. He could be the one which the prophecy spoke about,"

"Uh, what are you talking about over there?"

"What if I told you that there was a way for you to gain strength on your own terms?"

"I would be suspicious since I just met you today," said Naruto with a small frown.

"Again understandable as to be expected of a ninja, your response reminded me of a certain man whom I hated a long time ago as I had believed him to be a destroyer. In a way I was both right and wrong as he had destroyed worlds but then they were recreated in his journey. Time and again he had proved to be more of a savior than a destroyer, I had to admit that he among many others were amazing,"

"Who is he and what do you mean by they?" asked Naruto curiously, getting quite interested in the story.

"I speak of Tsukasa Kadoya who is a Kamen Rider, There are many ways to describe a Kamen Rider. One of them would be that they are legendary masked heroes who protect freedom of humanity and always come when somebody calls for help,"

"That sounds amazing and all…but what does this have to do with me?" asked Naruto confusedly.

"From just your response, you possess a great potential of becoming a Kamen rider. Plus I looked back a bit of your timeline to take a look at your past actions which further convinces me of that,"

"But even if you say that, I can't become a Kamen Rider! Not when I'm planning to become Hokage!" Naruto protested.

"Both share one thing in common, they protect humanity though a Kamen Rider is much broader than that and there's no actual harm in doing both anyways,"

"I guess, but is there something I need to know though?"

"Yes, once you become a Kamen Rider, you are to go on a journey through many worlds and gradually awaken the hero within you while helping others resolve situations beyond their control. And before you protest, you can always return here as I've noticed that time here goes much slower than other worlds," said Narutaki upon seeing Naruto open his mouth to protest, effectively silencing him.

Naruto was torn, he remembered Jiraiya telling him how going on a journey can be a great teacher about many things which was partially true despite the pervert not having taught him enough now that he thought of it compared to Sasuke, but he doesn't want to leave his village in case it gets attacked again. Come to think of it, there might be something in those worlds that could help Konoha, maybe even help Tsunade wake up from her coma.

"…can I get some time before making my decision?"

Narutaki nodded in understanding "I see, then I would like to give you this…have a taste of what it means to be a Kamen Rider," he reached into his overcoat and brought out what appears to be a large white buckle with symbols encircling a red circular screen, and with it appears to be a black and white book with plastic like casing.

"What are they?" asked Naruto curiously.

"This is a copy of the Decadriver belt and Ride Booker, these are what will help you transform into the Next Kamen Rider Decade," Narutaki explained.

"But I haven't decided yet," said Naruto.

"I know, I'm giving it to you to use for now. It should help when making your decision,"

"…I guess you have a point there, I'll give it a try then,"

"We will meet again, Naruto Uzumaki," Narutaki walked backwards into some sort of hazy veil and disappeared much to the blonde's shock.

"Whoa, that's kinda creepy and cool at the same time. I better get back home for some ramen and sleep to think about this more,"

Naruto made his way down from the Hokage mountain and was currently walking along the streets whilst waving at the people who would stop to greet him amiably, this was still a strange feeling for the blonde and he was still trying to get used to it. Naruto walked around a corner and suddenly bumped into someone who let out a yelp, he was about to apologize but then froze upon seeing who it was.

"H-Hinata?" Naruto stammered out, the mentioned person let out a gasp upon seeing him.

"N-Naruto-kun?" said Hinata.

Both looked at each other in silence with neither side being able to bring themselves to uttering a word, they recalled what happened during the battle with Pein. Eventually Naruto was the one to speak up.

"So…how are you doing?" asked Naruto nervously.

"I-I-I'm doing okay," Hinata stuttered in response.

"That's great to hear…ummm…how is Neji and the others?"

"T-They're fine as well, there were a few injured but everything is okay,"

"That's also great," said Naruto _"Come on Naruto, pull yourself together!"_

"Ummm…," Naruto snapped back into focus when he heard Hinata speak up "Are you okay too?"

"Y-yeah, I'm totally okay now!" said Naruto with a foxy grin then he became nervous "Um Hinata, about what you said back then…did you really mean that?"

Hinata took a step back, she wasn't expecting him to ask about it yet. Now she has to give him an answer or forever regret it _"He wants to know how I feel, I need to tell him!"_ the shy Hyuuga steeled her nerves before speaking "Yes…I really meant what I said then. I had always admired the fact that you would always do your best and would get up to try again every time you failed…that you would believe in yourself despite everyone else thinking otherwise until you had proven them wrong. Your actions made me believe that I can also do my best too, I really wanted to be your friend too…but I would always hesitate most of those times which I really hated myself for,"

Naruto remained silent the whole time listening to her, he just couldn't believe that there was someone who truly admired him since the academy days. Come to think of, he never once saw her hanging out with any of Sasuke's fangirls which he had found odd until now.

"…at first, I wanted to follow you but when you had left…I decided to change and become strong enough so I can walk next to you, which was why I stepped in to help because I didn't want you to disappear forever. So I will say it again…," Hinata looked up to stared into Naruto's eyes "I love you, Naruto Uzumaki,"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock once more, he may have heard it before but the sincerity in which she spoke still knocked him for a loop. He realized that he had to say something which he did.

"Hinata, do you know…that you are the first person to ever tell me that you loved me?"

"Eh?" Hinata was surprised to hear that.

"Many others have made it known that they cared about me, but they never mentioned that they loved me. I never thought that I would had had such an impact on you. Then again, you showed me how strong you were so many times before. Like when you saved your teammates and I from those ninjas during our hunt for the Bikochu beetle or when you saved me again from one of the three brothers during that mission at the Land of Flowers, someone whom I couldn't beat back then. And you were far more than willing to save me when Pein had me pinned down," Naruto looked to see Hinata looked down at the ground and shyly poking her index fingers together, something which he began to admit is cute "You know, I've come to notice something,"

"W-what is it?" asked Hinata curiously.

"You seem to know a lot about me but I don't know that much about you, what say we get to know each other the right way. Like say over a bowl of ramen, then we can see where to go from there," said Naruto like a sheepish look on his face.

Hinata couldn't believe her ears, Naruto was actually willing to spend time with her! Sure he didn't say that he loved her back but he showed that he is coming to like her a lot and willing to get her a chance, she can't afford to ruin this!

"O-okay, I would like too as well!"

Naruto responded with his trademark grin "Great! Ichiraku's still open so we can head over there now," he turned round and began to walk towards their next destination but slowed down to look behind to see Hinata walking next to him and blushing "She's kinda cute that way,"

Later on, Naruto came to know a bit more about Hinata than before which included her hobbies, favorite food amongst other things and he got to reveal others things to her. Soon enough it was late and they bid each other farewell with Naruto returning to his temporary quarters for the meantime to rest. He was still a bit restless and so decided to examine the Decadriver and the Ride Booker, Naruto opened the latter and saw that it contained cards before taking them out to take a better look.

"Hmmm, these cards seem to show images of guys donning some sort of armor. Could these be the Kamen Riders that Narutaki guy was talking about?" said Naruto as he shuffled through them like how Tsunade taught him one time when she was having a poker game which he came back, since then she never let him play against her much to his confusion. Naruto couldn't help but feel like these cards were alive somehow due to a small amount of energy he was sensing from them "And he didn't even tell me how to use it even…just I'll ponder on that tomorrow," Naruto put the cards back into the Rider Booker and went to sleep, he didn't notice that the Decadriver was glowing as if waiting in anticipation for something.

As Naruto sleep, he dreamt that he was standing in some sort of battlefield where he saw the armored warriors fighting against an army of strange creatures and were actually winning but then a giant from the creatures side appeared to attack but apparently the warriors had a giant of their own to even the odds. Naruto saw a blue armored warrior transform a magenta colored one in a giant version of the Decadriver which attached to the armored giant and transformed him into a different but stronger form. Next he saw the giant leap high into the air with the other warriors transforming into cards and lined up before the opposing giant as the armored giant went each through each of the cards and struck the giant with a flying kick which resulted in an explosion, destroying it.

Naruto saw the smoke clear to reveal the riders standing at the edge of a Cliffside, but he noticed that the magenta colored warrior had turned to look at him and noted that he was wearing the Decadriver and the Ride Booker around his waist.

Then he heard a voice "Are you ready for the journey ahead of you?" Naruto was confused at first and was about to answer when the warriors got about some strange vehicles with two wheels and rode away.

Naruto was suddenly roused from his sleep and looked around in confusion, then he noticed that someone was knocking on his door. The blonde drowsily got up from bed and went to open it to see Yamato standing before.

"Oh Captain Yamato, what's up?" asked Naruto.

"There's something Kakashi wants to talk to you about, meet up with us at the regular training ground," said Yamato.

"Okay, I'll be there," said Naruto.

Naruto closed the door and went to get himself ready and meet up with the two Jounin and find out what they want to talk about then he can get back into training in order to get stronger…not forget that he has yet to make a decision on whether to be a Kamen Rider or not.

**This is Hussbek online with the first chapter of a new story, this has been on my mind for a while now and I got some guys pushing me for this story crossover. So here it is, a Naruto/Kamen Rider crossover story. It was a tough decision but in the end I made the choice for Naruto to become the next Kamen Rider Decade which is a good choice as he can transform into other Kamen Riders. I've decided that Naruto will be traveling to other worlds as a way of training but would return to the Elemental Nations every now and then. Here is the starting list of worlds which he would be going to:**

**TMNT: Turtles in Manhattan  
Marvel vs. Capcom  
Devil May Cry 4  
Bayonetta  
Red Earth  
Buso Renkin  
Freezing  
Generator Rex**

**Like always, there will be a harem with Hinata confirmed to be in it. I'm willing to take in suggestions in terms of worlds, girls and reasons (Good Ones) for them to be added.**


	2. Sudden Shifts

**Journey of the Maelstrom Rider**

**Chapter 1: Sudden Shifts**

"I can't believe that he would even do such a thing," that was the thought of Naruto as he ran along the dirt path within Mount Myoboku which is the homeland of the Toads which he has a summoning contract as well as training in the arts of Senjutsu.

The subject of Naruto's thoughts were what had happened the past few weeks, Naruto had learnt of Sasuke attacking a ninja of the Hidden Cloud village who was like a brother to the Fourth Raikage and had been put on a wanted list, so he along with Kakashi and Yamato intercepted the Kage in an attempt to plead with him to pardon the Uchiha but was refused and seen as naïve in perspective of the ninja world. Things then started heating up when Sakura appeared along with Sai, Kiba with his canine partner Akamaru and Rock Lee. He was taken by surprise when she suddenly made a confession that she loved him…but he wasn't so easily fooled and was actually hurt that she would try to deceive him this way just to relieve him of the promise he had made to her and pointed it out that he also seeks to bring Sasuke back in his own way which annoyed her to leave with the others.

Later on, Naruto snuck away from Yamato to follow Kakashi who had gone after Sakura and managed to save her from being killed by Sasuke and was visibly saddened to see how much he had changed and was threatening to destroy the Hidden Leaf village as a way of cleansing the shame of the Uchiha clan and had already taken the first step by killing Danzo who was serving as a stand-in for the Hokage, hearing this reminded him of the conversation which he had with Itachi before his death about choosing to protect the village or Sasuke and he had chosen to protect both, now he's seeing how difficult the choice is with Sasuke's mindset in the mix. The masked Uchiha appeared to take Sasuke away whilst leaving Karin behind for them to take back to the village and try to figure things out from here…the silver lining in this dark cloud was that Tsunade was finally awake from her coma and on her way to a full recovery before retaking her position as Hokage, then he had returned to Mt Myoboku for more training to become stronger to complete the newly added objectives to his mental list.

"_At this rate, I don't know if Team 7 would be able to go back to the way it was before when we started out from the Academy,"_ thought Naruto as he dashed along a wooden bridge then slowed down to a stop before a boulder where an elderly toad sat upon it before him, he was none other than Lord Fukasaku who serves as his tutor in the Sage arts.

The toad smiled upon seeing him "Ah young Naruto, I see that you're here once more…and it appears that you've changed your outfit a bit,"

Naruto looked at himself **(an Refer to the Dragon Blade Chronicles outfit)** before responding with a foxy grin "I had these duds some time ago to help protect me during a mission involving dragons and I felt that I should start expanding my entire arsenal in terms of both gear and jutsu with this being one of the many things being added,"

"You don't say, then I would like to see your newest additions in our practice run. See if you can keep up with me," said Fukasaku before leaping away with great speed.

Naruto wasn't too surprised as he had seen the elderly toad move much faster that that whenever they sparred and so ran after him. Along the way, the blonde ninja was constantly encountering the younger toads who were instructed to engage him in combat should he run into them. Naruto utilized his freeform style of close combat and signature Shadow Clone jutsu as he faced them head on and was able to take them down, one toad attempted to pounce him from behind but Naruto was quick to sense it and move out of the way for it to crash into a tree. The blonde ninja continued to follow after Fukasaku along the large leaves and giant mushroom even into one of the buildings and out where he also ran into wildlife like wolves and bears but was still able to hold his own while showing to be using the basics most effectively. The chase soon ended at the sacred grounds where the pools of toad oil and giant statues were situated.

"Most impressive, you were able to keep up with me despite the many obstructions in your path. Although I have yet to see any of your new additions," said Fukasaku with a nod of approval.

"Well I wasn't exactly pushed to the point of using them yet," said Naruto sheepishly.

"I see, then perhaps the next of training might do just that. We'll be going into live combat and I had already chosen an opponent for you,"

"Really, who?"

"You'll be fighting me, Naruto," a voice spoke up then something landed on the ground before them, revealing to be a large orange toad with purple markings around his eyes, face and stomach and wears a grey sleeveless vest.

Naruto blinked in surprise "Gamakichi, I'm guessing that me against you huh?"

Gamakichi nodded in affirmation "Fukasaku-sama told me that you were training, so I thought to lend a hand in it,"

"In that case, there's no way I'm going to hold back on ya!" Naruto took a combat stance.

"We're only practicing live combat, I would be worried if we had to fight with no holds barred,"

"I gotcha, now get ready for this!"

Gamakichi took the first move as he opened his mouth to launch his tongue towards Naruto who quickly dashed sideways to evade it before charging towards the toad and striking out with a straight punch which was blocked. Naruto saw an incoming chop from Gamakichi and quickly leapt into the air to avoid it but then saw a second strike heading his way, he quickly channeled chakra to the soles of his feet as columns of seals were seen glowing brightly on the shin guards then a blue circular platform made of chakra materialized beneath Naruto which he then stepped off to leap higher into the air much to Gamakichi's surprise but the blonde ninja was far from done as he created another platform to launch himself at the toad with a fist reared back and punched him hard in between the eyes before somersaulting away from a potential attack.

"Owww, that smarts! How did you do that?" asked Gamakichi while rubbing the bump on his head.

"I'll tell you about it after the spar," Naruto replied.

"Right,"

Naruto crossed the middle and index fingers of both hands "Shadow clone jutsu!" he created copies of himself as they charged altogether to attack their opponent, Gamakichi was quick to leap into the air to avoid getting dogpiled and came down to crush them under his weight but they scrambled out of the way to evade. Naruto vaulted off one of the clone's back to strike with a flying kick only for the toad to block with one of his forelimbs before pushing away which gave the other clones the opportunity to attack his blind spot as they grabbed the other and threw them like missiles to strike Gamakichi with flying headbutts, knocking him back several steps.

Gamakichi grunted from the barrage and swung his arms in an arc to knock the clones back with enough force to dispel them before bounding towards Naruto to strike him with a palm thrust to knock him down, Naruto saw the toad approach and took a defensive stance as he waited for Gamakichi to draw closer until he was within desired range as the ninja channeled chakra to his arms this time with rows of seals glowing on the armguards and plating on the gloves as he swung an arm to clash with Gamakichi's which then unleashed a burst of chakra which then blew the toad back to crash on the ground.

Naruto got ready to attack once more when Fukasaku stepped in and spoke up to the combatants "That's enough on this spar,"

Gamakichi grunted in response "Not a moment too soon, I'm not really in the mood to find out what else Naruto has in his new bag of tricks,"

"Sorry about that buddy, I guess I got too excited to try out my new techs in combat," Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Which leads to us asking about those seals on your shin guards and armguards," asked Fukasaku.

"Oh these?" Naruto gestured to the seals on the aforementioned armor pieces "Before the chakra avatar of my dad faded away, he transferred some of his memories into me which led me to one of his safe houses where I saw a lot of notes on seals and began studying on them and later on started creating my own varieties of seals. The seals on my shin guards manipulates my chakra to form platforms in midair which allow me to maneuver and dodge attacks, I can also use them to gain a short burst of speed too. The seals on my armguards allow me to release bursts of chakra upon physical contact which makes it ideal for parrying or countering attacks,"

"I can tell from experience," Gamakichi muttered to himself.

"That certainly is an effective application of seals in combat besides what we know commonly, but I can tell that there's more from what I can tell with the scrolls on you," said Fukasaku looking at the articles holstered to Naruto's thighs. They were about to talk more on Naruto's new gear and jutsu when there was a puff of smoke which dissipated to reveal a green toad which bowed before them.

"Fukasaku-sama, Kakashi of the Hidden Leaf village has sent an urgent message!" said the messenger toad, hearing this drew their attention especially Naruto.

"From Kakashi, what is the message?' asked Fukasaku with concern.

"It says that the village is in danger and that he needs Naruto to return immediately,"

"What?!" Naruto couldn't believe what he was hearing, the village is under attack yet again?

"And what has befallen the village?" asked Fukasaku urgently.

"We received no further details," said the messenger toad.

"Grandpa Sage, I'm heading back to the village right now!" said Naruto with determination to protect his home.

The elderly toad nodded in affirmation "Yes, of course!"

The messenger toad then spoke up "But there is something Kakashi wrote as well, he said that you should go to the woods outside of the village,"

"Why does he want to meet there instead of the village since I'll need to meet with Tsunade-baachan?" asked Naruto confusedly.

"You'll know when you get there," Fukasaku formed a handsign "Farewell Naruto," Naruto nodded in affirmation before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"I hope that everything will be okay in the village," said Gamakichi with concern.

"And I as well," said Fukasaku.

* * *

Naruto reappeared in the middle of the forest in a puff of smoke and looked around to see that he had arrived at the woods surrounding Konoha although he wasn't very familiar with the area unlike his friend Kiba and his partner Akamaru.

"I thought Kakashi-sensei would be here but I don't see any sign of him," Naruto crossed his arms "Maybe Grandpa Sage sent me to the wrong place, I better go look for him and find out exactly what's going on ASAP!"

Naruto took off down the path before taking to the treetops where he proceeded to leap from branch to branch in search of his sensei when he suddenly sensed multiple presences ahead of him moments before a salvo of kunai flew towards him from above, the blonde ninja deflected the incoming projectiles with a burst of chakra from his armguards before backing away from any follow-ups as he saw a small group of bandits emerge from the bushes with weapons in hand.

"Hey kid, hand over your valuables if you wanna live," said one of the bandits in a gruff voice.

Naruto frowned in response "I don't have time for this and you guys are too close to my home, so I'm taking you all out,"

He took out a pair of kunai before rushing towards them whilst deflecting the shuriken being flung towards him, the bandits scattered in different directions so Naruto targeted the one closest to him as he triggered the seals on his shin guards to unleash a burst of chakra to propel himself towards his target and connect a powerful knee strike to the gut which was enough to knock him out. Naruto spun round and used one his kunai to block a slash by a bandit's katana from behind, he pushed the bandit away and performed a low sweep to knock him down to the ground and continued with the momentum to slam on the bandit's head to knock him out as well.

Naruto took out several paralysis seal tags and placed them on the bandits to arrest their ability to move with the intention to alert the Konoha ninjas to come and pick them up later on. It appears that those bandits weren't the only ones in the forest as he encountered more along the way and had to defeat them as well and made it a point to inform Kakashi about this since he used to be a member of ANBU. He was continuing on his way when Naruto suddenly heard someone call out to him.

"Naruto!" the blonde looked to see two ninjas land on the ground before whom he recognized to be his sensei Kakashi Hatake and other teammate Sakura Haruno.

"Kakashi-sensei, Sakura. I was looking for you but kept running into bandits along the way," said Naruto as he approached them, not noticing Sakura flinch at the fact that he didn't add 'chan' to her name anymore "So what was this about the village being in danger?"

"Tsunade-sama has cancelled our alliance with the Hidden Sand village," said Kakashi.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock at the news "What?! Why on earth would she do that?"

"I don't know, but now everything is very tense between our two villages,"

"And that's not the only thing Tsunade-sensei announced," said Sakura.

"What else did she say?" asked Naruto.

"She wants to strengthen our military so we can attack other countries,"

Naruto shook his head in disbelief, this is completely unlike her. Tsunade doesn't have this kind of mindset as long as he's known her and Jiraiya told him about her before his death "None of this sounds like Tsunade-baachan at all!"

"According to ANBU, other lands are also boosting their forces. That would mean that the whole world is now headed for war," said Kakashi.

"All this doesn't make any sense at all, I'm going to talk to Tsunade-baachan and find out exactly why she did all this!" said Naruto.

"…Very well Naruto, but careful as her mindset is completely different to what we're familiar with," said Kakashi, Naruto nodded in affirmation before running past them in direction of the village to meet with the Hokage.

Naruto was going a fair bit of distance and was drawing closer though along the way he faced down more bandits and wildlife as well but remained undeterred in his current objective. He landed in the middle of a clearing and was walking across it when he heard the sounds of the leaves rustling in the bushes and his hands moved close to the scrolls and ninja pouch to use them at the slightest hint of hostility but was taken by surprise at the sight of the person who emerged into the clearing.

"Tsunade-baachan?! What are you doing here?" asked Naruto in surprise.

"Kakashi and Sakura were acting strangely, so I had them watched," said Tsunade bluntly, causing Naruto to frown at her.

"You had them watched? Kakashi-sensei and Sakura are trustworthy, which means the one acting strange around here is you!" said Naruto.

"Do you dare speak your mind in front of the Hokage?" asked Tsunade with a glare.

"Whether or not you are the Hokage, it doesn't change the fact that what you did was strange," Naruto decided to ask Tsunade about what he was going to talk to her about "What I want to know is why did you break our alliance with the Hidden Sand village and why beef up our military too?"

"They just can't be trusted, I know that they'll betray us one day," said Tsunade as if it was the obvious fact.

"They will never betray us especially Gaara, I would trust him with my life!" Naruto refuted the claim.

"You are as big a fool as always, do you think that peace can last forever?" said Tsunade "By building our forces, we can control other countries,"

"If you are saying those kind of things then are you really Tsunade?" asked Naruto, one important thing he knows is that Tsunade detests wars due to past experience and would take countermeasures against it, which is why he's suspecting her identity as of now.

"I am the Hokage, if you choose to oppose me then you will be crushed!" said Tsunade angrily.

Naruto took a combat stance once more "Time to find out who you really are!"

**Music Start: Naruto Shippuden OST; Ikari**

Naruto rushed towards Tsunade and threw multiple shuriken which she evaded with ease as he approached and lashed out with a high kick towards her head which she caught firmly in her grip and countered him with a punch obviously packing a lot of power behind it. Naruto used his armguard to parry the punch and unleashed a burst of chakra to make the defense more effective, he saw that Tsunade was surprised by the defense and jumped whilst using his free leg to kick her chest and unleashed another burst from the soles to knock her away from him whilst landing in a handstand before flipping to his feet.

The blonde ninja looked to see Tsunade glare at him then dug a hand into the ground and wrenching out a large boulder which she then threw in his direction, Naruto dashed sideways and looked only to be stunned to see her standing right in front of him with one of her legs raised over her head and got a faint idea of what she's about to do. Naruto channeled chakra to his shin guards to trigger the seals as he quickly dashed out of range as Tsunade brought her heel down on the ground, creating a large crater and rocks flying everywhere.

"Tch, that was close! Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto created multiple copies of himself and led the charge to attack Tsunade who proceeded to launch kicks, punches and at times throwing boulders at the clones and was taking the clones out one by one in rapid succession but Naruto wasn't deterred in the least as he wove through a set of handsign "Wind Style: Wind Cannon!" he reared his fist back with air swirling around it before he launched a blast of air in her direction. Tsunade punched the ground to make a slab of earth rise and take the hit in her place then she leapt high into the air and target him with a diving side kick, forcing the blonde ninja to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit.

Naruto saw Tsunade dash out of the dust cloud with a fist reared back once more to punch, leaving him no choice but to cross his arms to brace for impact whilst carefully timing the moment to trigger a stronger burst of chakra to reduce the power at the moment which was partially successful but on the other hand was sent flying from the supposed Hokage but he managed to form a chakra platform in midair and flipped off it for an aerial recovery before landing properly on the ground.

"_Man, I knew that there was something weird about her. The Baachan I know wouldn't even want to fight me to the point of trying to kill me," _thought Naruto with a frown _"Should I end this battle with Sage mode or…,"_ his mind strayed towards the device inside his ninja pouch but had to jump out of the way of a boulder being thrown his way.

"Guess I got no time to be picky about my options and just try it out…," Naruto reached into the ninja pouch behind him and brought out the Decadriver, he positioned it to his waist for a strap to shoot out and wrap around it and attach to the other side to be held securely in place. Naruto then opened the device and then took out a Rider Card "Time to see what this power can do…Henshin!" he inserted the card into the Decadriver and closed it as it then announced

[Kamen Ride: Decade!]

Multiple gray figures surrounded Naruto before converging into him as he was suddenly covered from head to toe in in armor with the eyes of the helmet being green with the resemblance of an insect. Several magenta colored cards hovered overhead before inserting themselves into the helmet which caused the shoulders and sides of the armor to gain the same coloring whilst the inner thighs and legs became white and an X was on one side in a slanted position under his left arm and over his right shoulder and the short straight line from the top of his right shoulder and straight down over his chest as the Ride Booker appeared strapped to the side of the belt.

Naruto looked at himself and could feel the power flowing through his whole body "Amazing, this feels different from when I'm using the Sage mode or the Kyuubi's chakra. This must be the power of a Kamen Rider,"

"I don't know what you have done to yourself but it won't save you from me!" Tsunade charged towards Naruto once more and attacked with a punch which he evaded with more ease than before retaliating with his own punch which was blocked but was actually pushing her back a bit then he realized that his physical abilities had been enhanced in this form.

Naruto deflected a punch and responded with a swift knee strike to the stomach and followed up with a jab to the face then leaned to the side to dodge an incoming punch before jumping backwards to get out of range of an overhead heel drop kick which created a crater at where he stood. Naruto was about to use his jutsu when he felt something at the back of his mind tell him that he's not able to use any kind of jutsu in this form so he switched to an alternative as he opened the Decadriver then reached into the Ride Booker and took out a Rider Card which he then inserted into the Decadriver and closed it

[Attack Ride: Illusion!]

Tsunade picked up yet another boulder and threw it towards Naruto who actually charged back at it, then a copy suddenly emerged from him and kicked the boulder out of the way before disappearing to clear the way for Naruto to reach her as she launched a punch but another copy emerged to block it for the original to capitalize on the opportunity to punch her hard in the face.

"I've had enough of this, this ends here and now Naruto!" Tsunade leapt high into the air "Heaven Spear Kick!" she descended towards him with an apparently powerful flying side kick.

"I could say the same for you!" Naruto inserted yet another card into the open Decadriver and closed it with the device announcing.

[Final Attack Ride: D-D-Decade!]

A row of large holographic golden cards appeared between himself and Tsunade in an ascending diagonal position when he leapt through with a flying kick of his own which increased in speed and power with each card he passed through until they clashed in midair and triggered an explosion from the impact. Both landed on the ground with Naruto appearing unscathed as he dusted his hands with a mild thought on why he did that whilst Tsunade was visibly bruised with burn marks and her clothes were damaged.

**Music End**

"It's just like I thought…," Naruto muttered as the armor disappeared with the Decadriver transferring itself back into his ninja pouch as he frowned "This isn't Tsunade-baachan at all," At that moment, Kakashi and Sakura landed in the clearing next to him.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Sakura confusedly as they turned towards Tsunade.

"No…," Tsunade was suddenly engulfed in light which faded away to reveal a wooden puppet with white linen wrappings and yellow markings with a large bronze crystal ball at the torso as it collapsed to the ground.

Sakura was taken aback by this "Tsunade-sama was a puppet?"

"Yeah, this is nothing more than an impostor," said Naruto.

The pinkette turned towards their sensei "You didn't notice it, sensei?"

Kakashi shook his head "No, it may had acted strangely but it had the same chakra as the real Tsunade. Even the sharpest Sensor type ninja wouldn't have detected the difference,"

"Which begs the question? Who kidnapped the real Tsunade-baachan and why?" said Naruto as he crossed his arms with a frown.

"We'll need to start searching for those from now, I'll have the ANBU begin the search for the Hokage," said Kakashi, he heard his comm link buzz and opened the channel to communicate "Kakashi here,"

"This is Sai, I'm calling to inform you that the other Great Nations have taken up arms against us!" said Sai, the recent member taking Sasuke's place in Team 7.

"What?! There's no way Gaara would do that to us!" Naruto spoke up in protest, he and the Kazekage have a certain level of understanding and can't believe that the former Jinchurriki would do such a thing.

"Hmmm…," Kakashi crossed his arms while deep in thought for a moment before turning to Naruto "Just like with Tsunade, there may be puppets in the other villages too,"

"Could it be possible? This person would have to be very strong to be able capture the other Kages," said Sakura.

"Which is why I want Naruto to go to each of the villages quickly and see if I'm right,"

"Alright then, I'll start with the Hidden Sand village to see Gaara first," said Naruto determinedly.

"We better find some leads, and fast. Sakura, I'll need your help," said Kakashi, Sakura nodded in affirmation and turned to speak to Naruto only to find that he was already gone which saddened her a bit before leaving the clearing with Kakashi.

None were around to see the puppet rise from the ground and look in the direction which Naruto had gone as a voice spoke through it "He defeated a puppet built from the chakra of a Hokage? That boy Naruto…who is he?"

Naruto was currently running along the path as fast as he could in direction of the Hidden Sand village and stopped for moment to catch a breath before resuming his run.

"Phew, gonna be sometime before I get there. Wish there was a faster method though," Naruto muttered to himself when he heard a strange sound "What's that?" he looked behind to see that hazy veil which he saw Narutaki pass through and something emerged from it to stop next to him, Naruto immediately recognized it to be the vehicle which the first Decade rides on frequently from his dream…the Machine Decader "Whoa, it must have appeared to help me out. Well I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and just go with it,"

Luckily his transformation had given him an info dump of things and so knew how to ride the motorcycle as he got on and revved it a couple of times then he rolled on the throttle and took off down the road.

* * *

**This is Hussbek online with the latest, Naruto was training with the toads when he got called about Tsunade breaking the alliance with the Hidden Sand village and went to confront her about it which led into a fight due to the Senju's strange behavior with the blonde transforming into the Kamen Rider Decade for the first time and was able to win the battle. They discovered that Tsunade was actually a puppet impersonating her and the real one is nowhere to be found. Now there's even more bad news as the other Great Nations are preparing to go into war with Konoha and Naruto has to go to each and every one of them to find out whether the Kages are impersonated or not. Read and Review as always.**

**This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

**Signing out.**


	3. Sandy Bouts and Misty Duels

**Journey of the Maelstrom Rider**

**Chapter 2: Sandy Bouts and Misty Duels**

Amongst the sand dunes of the desert, one might hear over the howling winds the sound of a roaring engine of which he or she would catch the sight of what appears to be spiky blonde ninja riding on a two-wheeled vehicle which was none other than Naruto riding the Machine Decader as he slowed to a stop to look ahead and saw the Hidden Sand village a bit further ahead.

"There's the Hidden Sand village, looks like I was able to reach here in less than half the time it took me and the others when we went to save Gaara from the Akatsuki," he got of the bike and saw it then drive away into a dimensional veil "And I don't have to worry about anyone trying to steal it too,"

Naruto ensured that he was all geared up before facing the village "Better find out if Gaara's the real deal or an imposter, I really hope for the former cause we could use some help to find Tsunade-baachan,"

He began his approach towards his objective but had to watch out for large scorpions hidden underneath the sand as well as quicksand, he nearly sunk into one had he not created Shadow Clones to form a makeshift rope to pull him out in time. He drew closer to the gateway when several figures appeared in his path and saw them to be the shinobi of the Hidden Sand village.

"Why are you here?" asked one of the shinobi.

"I'm here to speak with Gaara about an important matter," Naruto replied.

"Well your journey was a wasted one Leaf ninja, return to your village for you're not welcome,"

"Please, this is very important for not only me but for everyone else here!"

"This is your last warning, leave now or you will be eliminated,"

Naruto remained firm "I can't do that, there's too much at stake here!"

"All units, attack!" the Sand Shinobi armed themselves and moved in to engage the blonde ninja who sighed in resignation.

"I apologize in advance,"

Naruto timed for counterattack as a Sand Shinobi swung a kunai and intercepted by grabbing his wrist and spun to toss him into the air, he created a shadow clone behind him to launch off his shoulder to execute an axe kick on the airborne target to slam him to the ground. Two more came at him in a pincer formation which forced him to the defense by using the armguards to repeatedly deflect the incoming kunai strikes before seizing the right moment to activate the seals on them and triggering a chakra burst upon clash which staggered the duo. Naruto took out a pair of paralysis tags and threw to attach before activating to arrest their movements.

"I'm really sorry about this!" Naruto ran past them and through the gateway into the village, but he didn't get and heard the alarm bells ringing and quickly went to hide himself within a nearby alleyway with a small frown "It's gonna be tough making my way through here, should I get spotted, everyone will be breathing down my neck," he took out one of the scrolls from the holsters on his hip with slight hesitance "It's still a prototype, but it will have to do for now,"

Naruto unraveled the scroll and bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood then smeared a trail of it across the seals, he proceeded to twirling it above his head before rolling it back up and holding it while forming a tiger seal. His body was then enshrouded in a clear aura before returning the scroll back into the holster with a nod of approval.

"Looks like the Incognito Seal works," Naruto muttered to himself, he customized the seal with the purpose of concealing his scent, nullifying any sound he would generate, and randomizing the footprints left behind but only for a certain amount of time before needing to be recharged with chakra "Better get moving,"

The blonde ninja proceeded to make his way through the village, he had to recall the times he came to the village in order to plan a route of which he would be less likely to encounter any of the Sand shinobi looking out for him, he snuck through the alleyways and partially destroyed buildings whilst avoiding the rooftops in the meantime but there were several close calls so he had to knock them out stealthily. Soon enough, the effects of the Incognito Seal wore off the moment he made his way into a partially ruined building.

"Still need to work out the kinks on it," Naruto muttered to himself, he ventured through the hallways and had to watch out for giant spiders and scorpions hiding in the ceilings and beneath the sands respectively. He entered a large room with the roofs collapsed and the sun shining through, he was barely across when someone appeared before him with a Shunshin and recognized who it is.

"Hey Temari, it's been a while since we met at the Kage summit," Naruto greeted with hopes that she doesn't respond violently.

"This is the Hidden Sand Village's territory, why are you here?" asked Temari stoically.

Naruto frowned at this but responded nonetheless "I came to see Gaara for an important matter, could you tell me where he is?"

"We were very grateful to be allied with the Hidden Leaf Village, but that's over now and this makes you an enemy," Temari took a stance and a hand placed on the large fan holstered to her back "By the order of Gaara-I mean the Kazekage, I will have your head!"

"I don't want to fight you Temari, there's no point in this!" Naruto protested strongly against this.

"Then you can simply stand there and be killed!" Temari rushed towards Naruto and swung her fan like a club.

**Music Start: Muramasa The Demon Blade OST; Magnificent Palace B**

Naruto evaded with a sidestep and lashed out with a roundhouse kick, Temari saw the incoming attack and ducked below it to counter with a low sweep kick. The blonde ninja performed a short hop with his other foot to dodge and land on his hands then spinning to attack with a flare kick. Temari sharply unfolded her fan to serve as a shield, blocking the attack getting into position with it reared back.

"**Wind style: Wind Scythe jutsu!"** she swung her fan to launch a powerful current of wind to send Naruto flying while cutting up parts of his clothes, Naruto somersaulted in midair to land on the wall he was driven to on his too feet and latched on before speeding through a set of handsigns **"Wind style: Whirlwind Spin!"** he left off the wall and performed a 360 spin to create an enormous wind sphere, easily deflecting the sharpened wind until it dissipated. Naruto triggered the seals on his shin guards which enabled him to close the distance between himself and Temari to land a punch to the gut before backing away from a swing of her fan.

"So you possess an affinity with the element, quite rare for the people of your village," Temari, recovering from the attack.

"I heard of that from Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto.

"But it won't make that much of a difference here! **Wind Style: Wind Cutter jutsu!**" Temari swung her fan to launching crescent blades of wind towards Naruto who reached behind his back to pull out a blade horizontally strapped, revealing its appearance to be that of an elongated kunai with Konoha symbol on it **(The blade from The Lost Tower movie).** **"Faithful Wind Blade!"** he channeled wind energy into the katana to form a giant 10 foot condensed blade of wind formed along it. Naruto proceeded to deflect the incoming projectiles then reduced the length of the wind blade to through it like a boomerang.

Temari knocked it out of the way with her fan to send it embedding itself into a wall and swung it once more to launch a gust of wind towards her opponent, Naruto rushed forward whilst throwing a small metal disc imprinted with seals on the ground ahead of him for a seal matrix to spread from it, the moment he was standing within the matrix, large kanjis appeared in midair and defended him against the attack before dissipating after its purpose had been fulfilled. Naruto sped through a set of handsigns for his next move **"Wind style: Gale Wolf!"** he held an open palm out for a spiraling sphere of wind to take form, four wolves made out of the wind emerged from the sphere before charging towards Temari upon a mental command from Naruto.

"**Wind style: Gale Raging Wall!"** Temari created a wall made out of the wind which pushed the gale wolves away each time they lunged at her, Naruto frowned at this and deactivated his jutsu then switched to his signature jutsu **"Shadow Clone jutsu!"** in a puff of smoke, several copies dashed towards Temari with the Kunoichi scoffing at the use of the jutsu but remained on guard **"Wind style: Sandstorm jutsu!"** she generated a gust which kicked up the sands around her into the air, causing Naruto and the clones to be blinded for the moment which costed them as they looked to see that she was gone from their sight without a sound.

"Where'd she go?" asked one of the clones, looking around in confusion.

"I don't know yet," said another.

Naruto recalled something and immediately alerted the others "Guys heads-up, she's gliding above us!" they all looked up and sure enough, there was Temari riding silently atop her fan with a smirk before jumping off and grabbing it.

"It's too late for you, **Wind style: Cyclone Scythe jutsu!**" she launched many currents of wind which constantly collide with each other, creating vacuum pockets as it slammed into Naruto and the clones with a cloud of dust forming upon impact.

Temari landed on the ground with her head bowed slightly "A pity it had to come down to this,"

"I agree," not expecting to hear a response, Temari spun round to see Naruto standing right in front of her with a palm shrouded in chakra as he slammed it into her gut before **"Paralysis Seal!"** a seal formula appeared on the blonde and glowed before Temari felt her body freeze up.

"Dammit!"

**Music End**

"Did Gaara really order you to take me down?" asked Naruto, stretching a hand out towards the chakra blade which shook slightly before removing itself from the wall and flying into Naruto's hands before he sheathed it.

Temari frowned in response "I told you already, if you're not an ally then you're an intruder,"

"That's bullshit and you know it, Gaara wouldn't say something like that!"

"…,"

"And I want to tell you before you attacked me that Tsunade wasn't the one who broke the alliance, it was an imposter,"

The statement caught Temari's full attention "Oh, what do you mean by that?"

"We don't know when exactly, but someone captured her and an imposter took her place then started making all these kinds of crazy orders with reasons that don't make any sense." Naruto explained.

"…,"

"After discovering this, I came here to check on Gaara to see if he's the real one or an impostor took his place too. Has he been acting strange in any way for some time now?"

"Actually, it would be hard not to notice how strange he's been," Temari admitted to her fellow blonde.

"I was hoping that wasn't the case," Naruto formed a handsign for the seal to fade away, enabling Temari to regain movement.

"Do you really think he could be an impostor?"

"The only way to find out is when I speak with him,"

"Very well then, you'll find Gaara at a rooftop west of here,"

"Thanks Temari, I hope to resolve this soon," Naruto ran past her into a passage at the other side of the room.

Naruto continued his venture through the building whilst avoiding or silently taking out any Sand shinobi along the way, no doubt his fight had attracted several to come and investigate. The blonde Konoha ninja also had to watch out for more scorpions and tarantulas in addition to collapsing ceilings and weakened floors, h soon emerged at the top of the building where he sensed the chakra of someone familiar and immediately headed towards the source

He soon arrived at the rooftop where he caught sight if the person whom he was the reason why he came to the village, standing with his back to him before calling out "Hey Gaara!"

Said person and Kage of the Hidden Sand village turned round to face him with his arms crossed and a stoic expression on his face "What fool has intruded upon my domain? Is that you Naruto?"

"I came to ask you a question; what is the most important thing yo know?" asked Naruto, waiting for the redhead's response.

The Kazekage scoffed in response "What a stupid question, great power means everything to me,"

Naruto scowled at the response and took a combat stance "That answer proves you're an impostor, the real Gaara puts everything he's got into protecting the village! He doesn't believe in such a thing anymore!"

"Just keep talking nonsense, I am the real Kazekage!"

"Then I'll just have to rip that disguise to reveal your true identity!"

**Music Start: Muramasa: The Demon Blade OST - Turbulent State**

Naruto weaved through a set of handsigns **"Wind Style: Wind Assault!"** he dashed forward with an arm reared back as a conical vortex of wind swirled around it then he thrust it forward with Gaara simply standing there before speaking **"Desert Wave,"** a large wall of sand rose from the ground between him and Naruto as it defended against the latter's attack until it dissipated then responded with a counterattack **"Desert: Hand,"** large hands made out of sand shot out of the sand wall towards with intent to grab the blonde ninja who was jumping backwards from left to right rapidly to avoid getting captured, he suddenly felt something wrap around his legs and looked down to see tendrils of sand which were holding in place.

"Darn, he was setting me up for a trap," Naruto muttered to himself.

"You shall now pay for your foolishness with your life," Gaara proclaimed as he formed multiple spears out of sand before launching them towards Naruto.

"Sorry but I ain't gonna die for a long time!" Naruto sped through a set of handsigns as the spear drew closer **"Wind Style: Wind Gust!"** he raised his hands above his head before bringing them down on the ground to unleash a heavy gust of wind outwardly from his body which blew sand away and regained mobility, he weaved another set of handsigns** "Wind Style: Wind Piercing Strike!" **he lunged forward and spun at high-speed whilst emitting wind power in a manner similar to Kiba's Tunneling Fang.

Gaara used Desert Wave once more to defend, but this time Naruto was boring his way through the sand wall and closed in on him **"Desert Suspension,"** Gaara quickly jumped to land on a platform of sand which carried him into the air, causing Naruto to miss and cancel his jutsu with a frown **"Sand Shuriken!"** he quickly unsheathed his Chakra blade in a reverse grip whilst strengthening it with his chakra as he rapidly deflected a barrage of shuriken constructs of sand launched by his opponent.

"Better get up close and personal here," Naruto leapt into the air and creating chakra platforms multiple times to jump off of and ascend towards his opponent and at the same time using them to redirect himself to evade the incoming sand shuriken launched his way **"Shadow Clone jutsu!" **he created a large group of clones to join in the offense as they attacked from different directions with punches, kicks and slashes from their chakra blades, laying pressure from all sides.

"Enough of this nonsense, **Desert Hail!**" Gaara gathered his sand into large clumps in the shape massive boulder-like formations and proceeded to drop them from the sky onto his targets, several of the clones got hit and were forcefully dispelled others attempted to use them as footholds but spikes would shoot out of them to destroy those clones as well, leaving Naruto to be the only one left and was forced back down to the ground.

"For a faker, this guy's really pushing it. Guess I better transform before I get crushed," Naruto out of the way of a falling sand boulder and took out the Decadriver from the ninja pouch then positioned it to his waist for a strap to shoot out and wrap around it and attach to the other side to be held securely in place. Naruto then opened the device and then took out a Rider Card "Henshin!" he inserted the card into the Decadriver and closed it as it then announced

[Kamen Ride: Decade!]

Multiple gray figures surrounded Naruto before converging into him as he transformed into Kamen Rider Decade. The blonde ninja/rider dusted his hands before opening the Ride Booker and took out a Rider Card which he then inserted into the Decadriver and closed it

[Attack Ride: Blast!]

Naruto took off the Ride Booker from his belt as it transformed into its Gun Mode then aimed it towards the falling sand boulders and pulled the trigger with pink spectral copies appearing around it and firing rapidly alongside the weapon, the speed and power of the shots obliterated the boulders before they could get any closer. Naruto soon stopped firing and leapt towards Gaara with his jump having been boosted because of his rider form, the fake Gaara send arms of sand to snag him in midair but Naruto took out another Rider Card and inserted it into the Decadriver before closing it up

[Attack Ride: Invisible!]

Naruto disappeared from sight completely with the arms unable to locate their target for capture, Gaara looked around for his opponent and was tense given that he couldn't even sense a trace of his chakra. He suddenly felt a strong blow to the cheek which knocked him off the sand platform to the ground below, Gaara got up from the floor to see Naruto reappear before him.

"I'm gonna end this with style and power!" Naruto took out another Rider Card and this one has a Kamen Rider on it as he inserted it into the Decadriver and closed it with the device making an announcement.

[Kamen Ride: Faiz!]

Glowing veins of red energy appeared to outline along Naruto's body before letting off a bright red flash which dissipated to reveal the blonde now donning a different armor save for his Decadriver as he has now transformed into Kamen Rider Faiz and dusted his hands before taking out a golden Rider Card with the Faiz emblem on it and tapping on it with a finger.

Gaara scowled at the declaration "Enough with such delusions!"

Naruto frowned behind the helmet "Right back at ya!" he inserted the Rider Card and closed the Decadriver.

[Final Attack Ride: F-F-Faiz!]

Naruto materialized the Faiz Pointer with it attached to his right leg before leaping high into the air, Gaara's senses alerted him of a powerful incoming attack and quickly made a defensive move **"Ultimate Defense: Shield of Shukaku!"** he created a shield in the form of a miniature Shukaku positioned in front for protection, Naruto aimed the Faiz Pointer on his leg towards the shield to fire a red laser beam which expanded into a large cone of red photon energy then he dove into it with a flying kick which caused the cone to spinning rapidly like a drill. The shield held strong for a few moments before breaking through and striking a shocked Kazekage with the spiraling photon energy fusing with him and Naruto reappearing behind him then an explosion with the Faiz emblem flashing for a moment before disappearing.

**Music End**

Naruto turned round and watched as the wounded body of Gaara flashed for a moment before revealing a puppet similar to the one he fought impersonating Tsunade. the blonde ninja undid his transformation with the Decadriver warping back to his ninja pouch.

"So this one's a puppet too," said Naruto with a scowl, he took note of Temari arriving along with her other brother Kankurou and Jounin Baki.

"Temari informed us of what you said and it appears that you were right," said Baki, looking at the puppet with a frown.

"How could we not have sensed it being a puppet this whole time?" asked Temari in confusion.

"I've never heard or read of a puppet being capable of such a disguise," said Kankurou, observing the puppet.

"But the question now is where is the real Kazekage?" asked Baki with no small amount of worry.

Suddenly, the puppet rose up from the ground, causing the trio to take combat stance but it made no motion to attack, rather a voice was speaking through it.

"You defeated the Hokage and now the Kazekage? What power you possess…," said the puppet.

"Seems like someone's projecting their voice through the puppet," said Kankurou with a frown.

"Who are you and why are you doing this?" asked Naruto.

"This is for vengeance," the puppet replied.

"Vengeance against who?" asked Temari.

"All the ninja of this world,"

"Then you mean to tell us that the other Kages are impersonated by puppets too?" asked Baki worriedly.

The puppet responded "In that case, you will have to check it out for yourself. Though you better hurry, the world is about to be wrapped in confusion. And war, which you ninja are so fond of, is about to break out," then it crumpled back to the floor.

"This is a crisis, someone was actually able to capture the Kages and use puppets to impersonate them without anyone noticing until now. As if we didn't have enough problems already especially with the Akatsuki," Baki muttered lowly.

"Any of you know where the remaining Kages are? I'll go and check if they're real or impostors as well," asked Naruto.

"We'll get someone to investigate and let you know as soon as we can," said Temari.

"We'll also try to conceal the information of Gaara being missing for as long as we can to prevent panic in the village," Baki said in addition.

"In the meantime, I'll get this puppet to the research team so we can find out what makes it tick and figure out any weakness," said Kankurou.

Naruto nodded in affirmation "Alright then, then sooner we find this creep then sooner we can find Granny Tsunade and the other Kages,"

* * *

The blonde ninja was now walking through the streets of Konoha at night after giving his report to Kakashi and Yamato, both ninjas being very concerned about the current situation. They checked through the archives to find out more about this rather unique puppet jutsu besides the ones in the Hidden Sand village and the extinct Shirogane clan which they faced down in the past. So far, they aren't coming up with any good leads and that's what's worrying the blonde ninja.

"*Sigh* just who is this puppeteer and why does he hate the Five Great Shinobi Nations so much? I gotta put a stop to this as soon as I can, else innocent lives will be lost," Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and took out the Rider Card depicting Kamen Rider Decade to look at it "The power of a Rider is definitely nothing to scoff at, it's been helping me put a lot recently,"

"Naruto-kun, is that you?" upon hearing a feminine voice, Naruto looked up to see Hinata approach with a shy smile.

"Hi there Hinata-chan, how have you been?" asked Naruto happily.

"I have been doing well, I just returned from training with Shino, Kiba and Akamaru. Did you go on a mission today?"

"Yeah, but I can't tell ya here since the information might cause a panic,"

"O-Okay, so are you going somewhere right now?" asked Hinata curiously.

"Not really, just roaming around a little before heading home to rest for the night. What about you, are you heading home too?" Naruto responded before asking his own question to which the lavender-haired girl nodded meekly in affirmation "Then in that case, how about I escort you home?"

Hinata began waving her hands in a panicking manner with a blush on her "I-I-It's okay, you must be very tired and I don't want to be a bother,"

Naruto simply smiled "I don't mind at all, I'm okay with escorting you home,"

This led to Hinata shyly poking her index fingers together, Naruto smiled at this reaction as now looking at it reminds him of her acting like a bashful bunny. The duo proceeded to walk in direction of the Hyuuga compound, Naruto was throwing glances towards Hinata's hands at her side with hesitation as he wanted to hold hands but just can't seem to bring himself to doing it.

"_Come on Naruto, get a hold of yourself! You know you want to hold her hand so go for it, remember your Nindo!"_ Naruto suddenly snapped out of his thoughts upon hearing Hinata yelp and looked to see her trip on something and was about to fall. He swiftly moved to grab her hand and pulled her close to him "Hinata-chan, are you okay?

"… y-yes, I'm okay. Thank you for catching me," Hinata was blushing beet red at being held so close to Naruto with the person himself blushing as well

"Um, j-just in case. How about we h-hold hands so you won't trip again," Naruto stammered a bit, though a little irked that he's using this as an excuse to hold hands out of nervousness.

"Oh okay," Hinata held hands with the blonde ninja as they resumed their walk to the Hyuuga compound, unaware that someone's looking at them with eyes of jealously especially towards Hinata. Soon enough, they arrived at the gateway "Thank you very much for escorting me,"

"No problem like I said, I hope we can hang out some more," said Naruto with a foxy grin, Hinata nodded meekly in agreement with a small smile on her lips "Well goodnight, I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Goodnight Naruto-kun," Hinata bade the blonde farewell before entering the compound with Naruto walking home with a feeling of content which was rather easing considering the situation of the missing Kages.

The unknown watched him leave with gritted teeth "And here I thought that her shyness would keep her away from him, I need to act quickly lest I lose him to her and I can't let that happen!"

* * *

Three days later, Naruto stopped the Machine Decader at the edge of a bay before a wooden bridge leading across it before getting off and watching the bike disappear through the dimensional wall before facing forwards.

"So this place is Meditation Hills, according to the info Temari sent to us; this place is near the Hidden Mist village so I better keep a look out for Mist Shinobi around here. Better go look for the Mizukage and find out if she's legit or not," said Naruto before getting a move on.

Naruto traversed through the river by crossing over the wooden bridges though there were several of them broke off since they hadn't been maintained in a long time so he resorted to alternate routes whether by using the water walking to cross or leaping along rock ledges on cliffs. He soon came across several of the Mist shinobi whom he was able to avoid a few via stealth but there're others he was forced to fight and knockout, not to mention the wolves and bears inhabiting the area. He was just running off the next shoreline across the river when he saw someone standing in the middle of the river to block his way and sensed that he was different compared to the other Mist shinobi.

He is a teenage boy with short, tufty blue hair and dark eyes as well as having pointed shark-like teeth similar to that of the Akatsuki member Kisame. He wears a square, black-rimmed glasses connected to ear protector, a blue pin-striped shirt and camouflage pattern pants. He wears his forehead protector on the front holster which is being used to carry a queer looking sword. This sword features a wide flat blade with two curved indentations near its base to create some sort of cross guard which is wrapped up in bandages, two handles are connected to one another by a short length of cord.

"Um excuse me…can I ask you something?" asked the boy timidly.

"Who are you?" asked Naruto with slight tension in case he might be attacked.

"I'm Chojuro, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. It's my job to protect the Mizukage," said the now identified Chojuro.

"Then it's a good thing I bumped into you, my name's Naruto Uzumaki from the Hidden Leaf village and I wish to meet with the Mizukage," said Naruto.

"The Mizukage was right as always! A ninja from the Hidden Leaf village really did come," said Chojuro with admiration.

"Excuse me but could you tell me where she is?" asked Naruto.

Chojuro shook his head in response "That I cannot do, especially for you,"

"What are you talking about?"

"She ordered me to make sure that you didn't get past me,"

Naruto frowned at this, how could the Mizukage have known that he was coming? Unless of course… "That Mizukage might be an impostor,"

Chojuro blinked at the proclamation "…a fake?"

"Yeah, which is why I'm here to make sure of that. Surely you might have noticed any behavior when near her, right?" asked Naruto, then he noticed that the teen was glaring at him angrily.

"Don't be stupid. There's no way that our kind, sweet Mizukage isn't for real!" Chojuro grabbed the sword behind his back and held it before him "Mizukage-sama was right all along about you being an enemy who must be defeated and I will gladly do so!"

Naruto let out a groan before taking a combat stance "Oh boy, here we go again,"

**Music Start: Metal Gear Rising OST - A Soul Can't Be Cut (Platinum Mix)**

Chojuro rushed at Naruto and attacked with a diagonal slash which the blonde ninja leant to the side to evade then went into a backflip to dodge the follow-up afterwards, Naruto maintained evasive defense for a few more moments before suddenly switching tactics as he took a quick step forward and parried the blade with an armguard whilst unleashing a burst of energy to make his opponent stumble then landing a punch to the jaw and followed with a roundhouse kick, Chojuro recovered in time to duck under the kick and swung at the blonde's leg. Naruto was quick to jump with his other leg and twist his body to land in a handstand then lashing out with a double kick to knock Chojuro back albeit the Mist shinobi used the flat side of the blade as a shield to defend.

Chojuro placed the sword onto his back before speeding through a set of handsigns "**Water Style: Water Spikes!"** Naruto sensed ripples around him and alarms blared loudly in his mind which led to him instinctively leaping high into the air just in time as large spikes of water shot out from the canal, almost impaling him. The blonde ninja landed back on the water and took off with more spikes shooting out in repeated attempts to strike him down, he weaved a set of handsigns while on the move **"Wind Style: Air Bullets!" **he took in a deep breath whilst concentrating chakra into his lungs before opening his mouth to spew bullets of air rapidly towards Chojuro who quickly leapt out of the way and had to disengage the water jutsu.

Naruto seized the opportunity to trigger the seals on his shinguards for a quick burst of speed as he closed in with his chakra blade drawn then clashed with Chojuro and his blade, both sides pushed back and forth against each other in a bid to gain an edge over the other. Chojuro suddenly channeled chakra into his blade and called out **"Hiramekarei Unleashing!"** the bandages suddenly unraveled, revealing the blade underneath it which was soon enshrouded in chakra, Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as he saw the chakra take on the shape of a hammer and Chojuro swung it towards him.

"Whoa!" Naruto rapidly retreated by channeling chakra to his feet and performed a series of backflips to build some distance between himself and his opponent **"Shadow Clone jutsu!"** he created a cluster of clones to attack the Mist shinobi as they charged forwards with their chakra blades shrouded in chakra, Chojuro reared his blade before swinging it in an arc as the chakra took on the shape of an elongated longsword which further lengthened to attack all of the clones at once. Most of the clones got hit but Naruto and a clone leapt into the air and worked together to form a blue spiraling sphere before diving towards the Mist Shinobi **"Rasengan!"** the attack landed but Chojuro suddenly burst into water, alerting him that it was a Water Clone. The blonde ninja suddenly dashed backwards in time to avoid an overhead strike from Chojuro who had shaped the chakra into its hammer form, creating a large wave of water **"Wind Style: Wind Cutter!"** Naruto reared his blade back before swinging it forwards to launch a crescent wave of sharpened wind which cleaved through the wave and continued onwards and almost hitting its target had he not moved out of the way.

"Tch, I won't let you get past me!" Chojuro charged forward to engage in close combat.

"You have no idea of the crisis that is at hand right now!" Naruto responded in kind.

The duo constantly clashed blades with little to no wasted movement, Chojuro proving how he became a member of the new Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist while Naruto was holding his own despite never having been trained in Kenjutsu though he had lots of experience facing off against past enemies wielding various kinds of blades in addition to his new equipment making him far more unpredictable as he constantly parried with his modded armguards and shinguards. Chojuro broke away from yet another clash before jumping away and weaving through a set of handsigns **"Water Style: Water Shuriken!"** multiple orbs of water rose from the canal before taking on the shape of spinning shuriken and launched themselves towards their target.

"Right back at ya, **"Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu!"** he flung the kunai and watched as it multiplied into a thousand copies of the original before clashing against the opposing projectiles, cancelling each other out. Chojuro was about to make another move when he felt something latch onto his ankles and looked down to see a pair of hands grabbing hold of him, next thing he was that he was lifted off into the air by shadow clones of Naruto grabbing each other's legs to formed a makeshift rope and spun round like a lasso before throwing him into the direction of Naruto holding another blue spiraling sphere of energy **"Rasengan!"** he rammed it into Chojuro flying across the canal and crashing into the cliff wall before tumbling into the river then resurfacing.

**Music End**

Chojuro was on his hands and knees with his head lowered in depression "I lost, how could this have happened?"

"Look man, you fought well. Now can you tell me where the Mizukage is? She's past here right?" asked Naruto, taking in a deep breath now that the fight is over.

"Mizukage-sama, please forgive me…I couldn't protect you,"

"Dude, she might be an imposter,"

"I can never look her in the face again,"

"Ugh, he's not even listening to a single word I just said," Naruto rolled his eyes at the teen's behavior "Guess I better go look for myself like my initial plan was,"

Naruto went past Chojuro and continued on his route down the canal, he engaged several more Mist Shinobi and wildfire till he reached the end which led to a waterfall. Seeing no alternate route, he took to descending down the waterfall as he made use of the ledges protruding out of the strong curtain but he made to be quick as the ledges weren't able to bear his weight for long before crumbling away. Soon enough, Naruto arrived at the bottom of the waterfall to come across a tunnel leading to some kind of cavern.

"Hmmm, I think I'm on the right track. My gut tells me that the Mizukage might be in here," Naruto proceeded through the caverns which was thankfully lit up because of the sunlight shining through openings overhead which also meant that there are more Mist shinobi about so he had to watch his step. Naruto emerged into a large cavern room and took note that he wasn't the only one in it, looking ahead to identify the person.

She is a tall slender woman with auburn hair styled into a herringbone pattern at the back, a top-knot tied with a blue band, and with four bangs at the front. Two bangs are short with one covering her right eye, and two are long, crossing each other at her bust just below her chin with fuchsia lipstick. She wears a long-sleeved dark blue dress that falls just below the knees and seems to be closed at the front with a zipper, and is kept open on the front-right side from the waist down. Underneath she wears a mesh armor as well as a skirt in the same color as the dress with mesh leggings reaching down over knees underneath too. Around her waist is a belt with a pouch attached to the back on the left along with high-heeled sandals, shin-guards reaching up over her knees, dark blue nail polish on her fingers and toes.

"So you made it," said the woman with a sultry smile.

Naruto was in awe of the woman's beauty before snapping back into focus "Are you the Mizukage?"

"Yes I am, my name is Mei," said the now revealed Mei.

"Kakashi-sensei told me that the Mizukage was also a woman, I never would have thought she'd be so beautiful,"

Mei giggled in response "How nice of you to say that, you're quite handsome yourself,"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment "Hehehe, I'm not really used to those kinds of complements,"

"So is there a girl you like?" asked Mei curiously.

"There's one, but I realized that it was never going to work out between us so I chose to move on," said Naruto with a sad smile.

"Never going to work out?" Mei's eye twitched at the sentence.

"But then I met another girl who really likes me, so I'm getting to know her better,"

Mei's eye twitched again "Getting to know her better…,"

"I thought she was weird at first, but now I know that she's really nice and kinda cute too," Naruto smiled at the thought of it.

"Is that so…,"

"And so I-" Naruto stopped in midsentence when he felt a chill crawl up his spine and looked to see Mei smiling at him but not the kind one would feel comfortable with.

"Be quiet now or you won't even live that long anyway," said Mei in a cold tone despite the smile on her face.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" the tone brought the blonde ninja back into reality and recall the reason for him being there.

"This will end only with you drawing your last breath," said Mei.

"_Is this Mizukage really as kind as that Chojuro guy says she is?"_ thought Naruto as he got ready for the next fight.

**Music Start: BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle OST - Princess Amagi-ya (Yukiko Amagi's Theme)**

Naruto made the first move by dashing towards the Mizukage in a zigzag pattern to engage her in close combat but soon came to realize that his opponent is quite agile as she weaved in and out to avoid his strikes then he decided to step things up creating a couple of shadow clones to launch a series of coordinated attacks to gain an edge which began to work as Mei was putting more effort in defense till a clone found an opening and managed to land a punch which sent her skidding backwards but the Kage was already setting up for retaliation **"Lava style: Lava Spray!"** she opened her mouth to launch a stream of lava towards a shocked Naruto who scrambled out of the way with his clones getting hit instead.

"I thought that she looked like a total hottie, I never imagined that she is one," Naruto sweating nervously and was on guard even more. **"Wind style: Gale Wolf!"** he held an open palm out for a spiraling sphere of wind to take form, four wolves made out of the wind emerged from the sphere before charging towards the Mizukage responding in kind **"Water Style: Water Snakes!"** water shot out from a nearby underground lake and swirled around her before taking shape of multiple serpents which then launched at the wolves, cancelling each other out.

Naruto looked Mei weave through a series of handsigns **"Water Style: Water Dragon jutsu!"** a mass column of water shot up into the air and took on the shape of a serpentine dragon before the Mizukage mentally commanded it to attack as the dragon lunged at him. Naruto took off with the water dragon in pursuit as he rapidly ricocheted off the stalagmites which were being destroyed in the aftermath, Naruto was preparing a jutsu while on the move before leaping towards the cavern ceiling and latching onto a stalactite with a final handsign **"Wind Style: Wind Dragon jutsu!"** a whirlwind swirled around Naruto before launching towards the water dragon as it took on the shape of a serpentine dragon as well before both dragons collided and canceled each other out. Mei searched for her opponent only to release that he was right behind her and spun round to defend only for him to disappear in a puff of smoke, suddenly she felt something strike from behind and a voice called out **"Wind Style: Violent Wind Palm!"** there was a powerful blast of wind to send her flying, revealing to be Naruto having launched the gambit maneuver.

The Mizukage somersaulted in midair and landed on the ground with a skid before glaring at the blonde ninja "Women don't like forceful men, it's time I show you the consequences of your actions. **Vapor Style: Solid Fog jutsu!**" she opened her mouth to expel a cloud of mist which spread throughout the cavern, Naruto had a bad feeling about the mist and dashed towards Mei and lashed out to disrupt the jutsu but she leapt away and disappeared into the mist.

"Tch, where did she go? These guys really like using this kind of jutsu a lot," Naruto muttered while briefly recalling his encounters with Zabuza, Raiga and few others "Hang on, what's with this mist?" he looked down and was alarmed to see parts of his clothes and armor were melting away, then he heard the Mizukage giggle from within the mist.

"I see you've noticed, my Solid Fog jutsu is a mist that is highly acidic in nature and capable of melting of melting bodies and even chakra-based defense. I wonder how long you will last? Fufufufufu,"

Naruto gritted his teeth at hearing this then he smirked, he could use a wind jutsu but like always goes against the norm especially since that's what she would be expecting so he took out the Decadriver and strapped it to his waist and took out his signature Rider Card "Henshin!" he inserted the card into the Decadriver and closed it as it then announced

[Kamen Ride: Decade!]

He transformed into Kamen Rider Decade and dusted his hands before opening the Rider Booker and taking out yet another card and inserted it into the Decadriver and closed it once more.

[Kamen Ride: Agito!]

The Decadriver let out a bright flash of white which dissipated to reveal Naruto donning a gold and silver armor, and red eyes. Naruto had transformed into the ancient mystic warrior Agito; he took a stance with a sense of calm akin to when he normally uses Sage Mode. He silently looked around his surroundings then sensed something heading towards him from the left and quickly jumped backwards in time as a spray of lava landed at where he once stood and melted the ground. Naruto immediately rushed to where his target was moving and landed a punch to the gut much to the Mizukage's shock.

"How were you able to find me in the mist and how is it not melting your armor?" asked Mei in disbelief.

"I'd rather we focus on this fight," said Naruto all too calmly before attacking with a jab which was parried but turned it into a onehanded grapple to reel her and land a knee strike to the chest followed by a leaping back-spin kick to the head but missed when Mei ducked below it countered with a side kick to the chest to knock him back before countering **"Water Style: Water Bullet!"** she spewed a powerful torrent of water to send the ninja/rider flying a fair distance until he dug his feet into the ground and grinded to a halt then held on till the attack dissipated.

Naruto gazed once more and stood silently until he heard the sounds of a heartbeat and swiftly moved towards it and struck out with a jumping punch for Mei to quickly move out of the way for a stalagmite to be shattered upon impact, he raised a forearm to block a high kick aimed for his head and took a step back and lashed out with an elbow from behind, landing a hit on his target. **"Water Style: Water Arsenal!"** two orbs of water hovered close to Mei who grabbed them and they took on the shape of dual katanas which she swung at the rider. Naruto was calmly parrying the incoming slashes with open palms and moving backwards gradually, he was inwardly amazed at how calm he was reacting to all this since normally and chalked it up as an aspect of the Rider he was currently transformed into.

In a fluid movement, Naruto disarmed Mei of the katanas and knocked her down to the ground, he took out a Rider Card from the Ride Booker and inserted it into the Decadriver before closing it.

[Final Attack Ride: A-A-Agito!]

The Crest Horns atop the helmet opened up to reveal two more horns as Naruto instinctively took a stance, golden energy in the shape of Agito's emblem appeared where he stood before fusing with his feet as took a step back with a slight crouch. Naruto leapt into the air and lunged with a flying side kick, he detected movement and saw Chojuro rushing towards him with his blade enshrouded in its hammer form.

"I won't let you hurt Mizukage-sama!" yelled Chojuro as he swung at the rider.

They clashed in the middle with both sides struggling for dominance but Naruto eventually won the clash as he sent Chojuro flying from the force and continued onwards to strike Mei to send her crashing into a stalagmite, Naruto landed sideways on the ground and turned away from her in a pose right before the explosion and the Crest Horns withdrew back into one.

**Music End**

Naruto calmly approached the severely injured Mizukage whose body let out a bright flash of light before dissipating to reveal yet another puppet before undoing his transformation with the Decadriver warping back to its usual place in the ninja pouch.

"Yet another fake," said Naruto with a frown.

Chojuro got up and limped over only to be shocked upon seeing the puppet on the ground "Mizukage-sama?! How could she have been a fake all this time?!"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you this whole time, but you didn't listen and even attacked me!" said Naruto angrily.

"Well then where's the real Mizukage?" asked Chojuro confusedly.

"I don't know, but I reckon that she's locked up in the same place Tsunade-baachan and Gaara are,"

"She's been captured? This is terrible! We have to search for her!"

"At the rate things are going, I'm worried about the two remaining Kages…do you know how I can get to the Hidden Stone village?" Naruto turned to the Chojuro only to see the Mist shinobi tugging at his hair in a panic.

"This is awful! What should I do? I'm the one responsible for all this! Ao-senpai is going to be very mad at me!"

Naruto deadpanned at this "I doubt I'll get any useful info from this guy when he's like this, better return to Konoha and report to Kakashi-sensei. Maybe he knows how I can to the Hidden Stone village and meet with the Tsuchikage," He turned round and walked away, leaving the panicking Mist shinobi to his own devices.

* * *

**This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto arrived at the Hidden Sand village in search of Gaara but soon came to discover that the residents are quite hostile and had to force his way into the village. A reluctant fight against Temari led to him being told Gaara's strange behavior which roused his suspicions which were soon confirmed when he finally met the Kazekage. He soon learnt that the kidnapper was doing all this for vengeance against the ninja world and seeks to destroy it with discord.**

**Sometime later, he headed over to the Hidden Mist village and received the same reception and even fought a member of the new generation of the**** Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist before meeting with the Mizukage albeit surprised that it was a woman in charge. An exchange of words which stepped on several landmines led to a fight but Naruto managed to pull though and discover that Mizukage was a fake as well which began to worry the blonde ninja about how strong the hidden enemy is to be able to kidnap the Kages so far.**

**Here are some new additions to the list of worlds which he would be going to:**

**TMNT: Turtles in Manhattan  
Marvel vs. Capcom  
Devil May Cry 4  
Bayonetta  
Red Earth  
Iconoclasts  
Freezing  
Generator Rex  
Skullgirls  
Tekken 7  
Guilty Gear Judgement  
Rosario + Vampire  
Megaman Zero 2**

**Be sure to read and review as always**

**This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

**Signing out**


	4. Shattered Stone and High Voltage

**Journey of the Maelstrom Rider**

**Chapter 3: Shattered Stone and High Voltage**

Naruto was currently leaping through the trees towards the Hidden Leaf Village after his scrimmage with the fake Mizukage, he decided to forgo the use of the Machine Decader since he wanted to think about a few things along the way.

"That makes three Kages to have been kidnapped and replaced with puppets to try and trigger a war. Just who would be able to pull something like this off? I know that it isn't Sasuke since I could tell he struggled even to kill Danzo just by looking at him. I'd better get a move on,"

The blonde ninja soon found himself landing in a small clearing and was about to continue on his way when he heard footsteps approaching him from the front and saw someone enter the clearing. She's appears to be a Kunoichi with medium length hair with two silver hairpins tied to the back, and a fringe covering her right eye. She wears a black kimono with a white sash, black fingerless gloves, a white jacket with a high collar and blue rose-printed textures at the hem, black leg warmers, grey shinobi sandals and a black forehead protector around her neck.

"Who are you?" asked Naruto warily.

The woman stared at Naruto silently before speaking "My name is Malice and there is something I need to ask you,"

"Malice huh, which ninja village do you come from?"

"That is not important, I want to know what peace means to you,"

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at that "Meaning of peace?"

"Since ancient times, war has continued without cessation and true peace has never been known. We'd be better off without the Five Kages who have proven completely incapable of bringing peace to this world. Still, why do you insist to help these Five Kages instead?"

"That is a rather strange question for you to be asking," Naruto frowned, he knows full well that the higher ups of the other villages are concealing the fact that the Kages are missing so he finds it suspicious that this Kunoichi somehow knows.

"Just answer me," Malice insisted.

"Well, I believe that true peace will come to this world one day. Granny Tsunade and Gaara also wish for peace as they've seen and experienced the negativity of war,"

"Then why is it that the fighting never stops? War will never end and one victim will be replaced with another,"

"I cannot ignore that there are people that wish to gain something for themselves even if it means that others will suffer, and I've met a lot of those guys ever since I graduated from the academy. But there are others like me that are willing to go up against them for the sake of protecting the ones close to us. It is why I wish to become Hokage; to find a way to stop the meaningless fighting and bring peace to everyone," said Naruto with eyes of determination.

Malice stared at Naruto silently "Do you really possess that kind of power? Let me be the one to test you,"

**Music Start: Tekken 5 - Dark Resurrection; Into Nirvana**

Malice took out a weapon resembling a giant syringe as she dashed towards Naruto and attempted to stab him with it. Naruto was almost taken by surprise but he dashed sideways to evade the incoming strike before retaliating with a roundhouse kick which Malice ducked underneath and jumped backwards whilst throwing a handful of shuriken. Naruto brought out a kunai and quickly deflected the projectiles before weaving through a set of handsigns **"Wind Style: Air Bullets!" **he took in a deep breath whilst concentrating chakra into his lungs before opening his mouth to spew bullets of air rapidly towards Malice with the Kunoichi weaving through a set of handsigns as well **"Earth Style: Mud Wall!"** she slammed a palm onto the ground, causing a solid wall of earth to rise before her and blocked the wind projectiles before sinking back to the ground.

Malice held her hand forward to make a seal matrix appear on the ground before her, Naruto analyzed the seal quickly to realize that it was a summoning seal matrix and got ready for whatever was going to appear. He was taken by surprise upon seeing an all too familiar puppet, especially when it rushed at him to engage in close combat and recognized the way it fought.

"_That puppet and the way it fights like Granny Tsunade, could she be the one responsible for the kidnapping? I need to capture her!"_ thought Naruto, he ducked below a punch from the puppet and formed a Rasengan before ramming it into the torso to send the puppet flying and shatter into pieces upon crashing into a tree **"Shadow Clone jutsu!"** he created a large group of copies that rushed towards Malice.

"**Earth Style: Float Ring Rock jutsu!"** Malice used the earth to create large rock cubes to orbit around her, the cubes knocked many of the clones back then she launched them as bullets to take them out. Naruto moved back and quickly set up a counter to the jutsu "**Rasengan Super Barrage!"** he created shadow clones armed with Rasengan to charge at the rock cubes and smashed them to bits, Naruto channeled chakra to his shin guards to trigger the seals as he quickly dashed towards Malice and stepped to the side at the last minute when she tried to stab him with the syringe-like weapon before somersaulting overhead and creating a group of shadow clones to surround her.

One of the clones rushed forward and punched Malice in the face, the original Naruto stepped on the clone's back and launched himself into the air with a somersault, **"Na...ru...to!"** the remaining three clones all performed a kick simultaneously, sending the kunoichi into the air towards the original **"Uzumaki Barrage!"** Naruto landed a powerful axe kick, sending her crashing to the ground creating a crater. He approached only to see a puppet in the middle of the crater, revealing that a substitution jutsu had been used.

"**Earth style: Bedrock Coffin!"** large slabs of rocks rose into the air above Naruto and surrounded him before dropping with the intent to crush him underneath **"Wind Style: Sonic Step!"** Naruto's body radiated a clear aura before he disappeared in a blur, seconds before the rocks crashed down. There was a sudden sound of something being struck and Malice was seen flying out a nearby bush and tumbled along to the ground to a stop and Naruto reappeared before her with his arms crossed and a stern look on his face.

**Music End**

"So that is but a glimpse of your power," said Malice thoughtfully albeit bruised all over.

"Alright then, you'll be coming with me to the village and tell us where Granny Tsunade and the other Kages are," said Naruto.

"I think not…especially when I haven't achieved my goal. We will meet again at a later time," Malice before there was a bright flash of light which faded to reveal a broken puppet in her place, Naruto looked around for the kunoichi to find that he couldn't sense her presence any more.

"Tch, she must have planned a way of escape before encountering me since she figured that I would try to catch her the moment she summoned that puppet. Better head for the village and let Kakashi-sensei know what's going on," said Naruto thoughtfully before leaving the clearing and taking to the trees once more.

Later that night, Naruto was with Kakashi and Yamato at the Hokage Tower where the former was telling them everything which had happened at the Hidden Mist village and his encounter with the Kunoichi on his way back to the village.

"…and that's what happened," Naruto finished the verbal report.

"What do you make of this Kakashi-senpai?" asked Yamato.

Kakashi hummed in thought before speaking up "So far, Lady Tsunade, Gaara, and Mei Terumi have been confirmed to have been kidnapped with only two Kages remaining to be verified, and this kunoichi Naruto met proves that both are strongly connected. But there are still questions left unanswered,"

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.

"Is the kunoichi doing this on her own or in a group? Did someone hire her to do this? These kinds of questions," Yamato pointed out to the blonde ninja.

"Well that Malice woman has all the answers, I'll make it a point to catch her the next time we bump into each other," said Naruto "Which of the Kages should I go to next?"

"Well…," Kakashi began to tell Naruto what needed to be known.

* * *

"…here I am," Naruto muttered to himself as he was currently in an underground tunnel lit up by lights hanging overhead and mining equipment scattered about "From what Kakashi-sensei and Cpt Yamato told, these are the Hollow Airways which lead to the Hidden Stone village. Apparently the Tsuchikage is a little old man by the name Onoki, they said he used to be feared as 'Onoki of the Two Scales' and is believed to be a real stubborn person. I better watch myself though, sensei said that Stone ninjas aren't so fond of Leaf ninjas especially after what my dad the Fourth Hokage did to them in the previous war,"

Naruto began his trek through the tunnels while making sure to watch out for traps, there were several wildlife in the area being bats, poisonous tarantulas and snakes which were larger than normal for him to watch out for. The blonde ninja took note of multiple Stone ninjas patrolling the area so he triggered the Incognito Seal to stealthily make his way through without being detected. He went through a passage and felt the ground before turning around to see a giant boulder rolling towards him, Naruto took off with the boulder pursuing him and getting closer with increasing speed so he leapt up to the ceiling and latched on to it with his chakra for it to roll past before dropping down to the ground with a sigh of relief. The blonde ninja soon found in a large cavern room and was halfway across when someone appeared before him to bar his way.

She happens to be a kunoichi with short black hair, donning the red Stone ninja uniform with the right sleeve missing and a lapel over her right leg. She also wears the Stone Ninja flak jacket, fishnet tights and a skirt over them, regular shinobi sandals and a pair of gloves.

"I knew I saw a little mouse sneaking around here. Who are you and what is a Leaf ninja doing around here?" asked the girl with a frown.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki and I'm here to see the Tsuchikage, who are you?" asked Naruto cautiously.

"The name's Kurotsuchi, what is it you want with gramps?" said the kunoichi.

Naruto blinked in surprise "Hang on, the Tsuchikage is your grandfather?"

"Obviously, now are you going to tell me what your business is or not?"

"I've come to check for myself if the Tsuchikage is being impersonated by someone or he's the real one," Naruto responded.

Kurotsuchi burst into laughter "That's why you came all this way? Nothing more than a fool's errand, and besides gramps gave orders for no one to get past this point,"

Naruto frowned in response "Look, this is a serious matter and I need to meet with the Tsuchikage one way or another,"

"Is that so?" asked Kurotsuchi with a smirk "Well, gramps also said that all intruders should be eliminated. So, I'm going to have some fun taking you down,"

"Somehow, I saw this coming from a mile away,"

**Music Start: Blazblue Phase III Chronophantasma OST; Susanooh II**

The two ninjas dashed up to each other to engage in close combat, both sides were constantly shifting offense and defense to gain an edge over the other. Kurotsuchi lashed out with a punch for Naruto to cross his arms to block the attack but was taken by surprise when he was sent flying backwards from the impact and skidded to a stop to stare at his opponent.

"_Man, she hits hard. Better watch myself," _thought Naruto before crossing the middle and index fingers of both hands **"Shadow Clone jutsu!"** he created a group of clones to charge at the opponent while he hung back to come up with a new plan. Kurotsuchi scoffed in response as she took to deflecting the incoming attacks and countering with powerful strikes to dispel the clones with a hit each until there were none left and was about to taunt the original only to hear a puff of smoke and found Naruto standing right in front of her with an open hand stretched out to her stomach "Gotcha!" he channeled chakra into his hand and performed a powerful one-inch punch to send her flying and crashed into the cave wall.

"…not bad, and here I thought that the shinobi of the Leaf were losing their edge," said Kurotsuchi, wiping the blood dripping from her lips with a grin.

"I'd take that as a compliment if I wasn't in a hurry," said Naruto, retaking his combat stance.

"Then it's too bad that we're just getting started! **Earth Style: Earth Flow Spears!**" Kurotsuchi weaved through a set of handsigns and the ground rumbled slightly then spikes made out of stone protruded from the ground to skewer Naruto who leapt into the air towards the cave ceiling only for spikes to shoot out from there as well, he quickly created a shadow clone to throw in a different direction and threw a handful of shuriken towards Kurotsuchi who deflected them with a kunai in hand before attacking with the next jutsu **"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet!"** a dragon-like head made out of stone emerged from the ground next to Kurotsuchi and began firing compressed balls of mud from its mouth at Naruto.

The blonde ninja sped through a set of handsigns to counter with a jutsu **"Wind Style: Spinning Shield of Winds!" **he unsheathed the Chakra Blade and channeled wind chakra through it before twirling in front of him like a propeller at high-speed to form a spinning circular shield of wind, the mud balls made contact with the wind shield and were reflected with twice the speed to destroy the earth dragon. Naruto was quick to notice that Kurotsuchi was nowhere to be seen when the ground before him burst open and said Kunoichi emerged in front of him with her left arm encased in stone **"Earth Style: Stone Fist jutsu!"** Naruto triggered the seals on his left arm guard and deflected the incoming strike with a burst of chakra from his armguard to make her stagger back. He seized the opportunity as he formed a blue spiraling sphere of energy on his right hand **"Rasengan!"** Kurotsuchi managed to move the stone fist in time to serve as a shield albeit it got destroyed and she was knocked back from the force of the attack.

"_This guy's definitely no slouch, there's something familiar about him too,"_ thought Kurotsuchi before snapping back into focus ad made her next move with a jutsu **"Lava Style: Quicklime jutsu!"** she began to spew large splotches of quicklime towards Naruto who was darting from left to right constantly to evade the incoming projectiles then she suddenly switched strategies **"Water Style: Water Trumpet!"** Kurotsuchi launches a large jet of water from her mouth through her cupped hands onto the quicklime on the ground to make it splash towards a surprised Naruto.

"_So that's what she was aiming for, hope this works,"_ thought Naruto before speeding through a set of handsigns **"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"** he took in a deep breath and unleashed an immensely powerful gust of wind from his mouth which blew the quicklime back and splashed on Kurotsuchi for it to rapidly harden to hold her in place.

**Music End**

"Looks like you win this round, just know that I hadn't gone all out on you," said Kurotsuchi with a scoff "You can find gramps further ahead into the tunnels,"

"Then I can pass?" asked Naruto.

"Considering the fact that I'm stuck like this, then it's obvious. But how sure are you that gramps is an impostor?"

"Not entirely sure, but I'll find out once I fight him,"

"You actually think you can beat gramps?" Kurotsuchi burst into laughter "Though he's an old man, gramps has been around even before the Third Shinobi World War. The thought of a kid like you beating him is just too funny!"

Naruto frowned in response "You'll never know unless you try, plus there's too much at stake here for me to lose!"

"Sure, whatever floats your boat. Just get a move on before I get out of this thing and go another round with you,"

"Whatever, I'm out of here," said Naruto before running out of the room, leaving the Stone kunoichi to her thoughts.

"Come to think of it, I recall that the Leaf got caught up in some crazy stuff like Sky Ninjas and the Terracotta Soldiers, and they managed to deal with them from what our spies told us. I get the feeling that blondie was in the middle of all of them. Better let gramps know to keep an eye out for him, especially since he looks a bit like the Yondaime,"

Naruto's fight with Kurotsuchi had definitely alerted the other Stone Shinobi so he was forced to fight his way through whilst using his Shadow Clones to serve as decoys and led them away, giving him the time needed to recharge his Incognito Seal and use once more for a much easier way towards his target. He soon arrived at the next large cavern room where someone stood alone and Naruto had a hunch that the person was who he was looking for.

He is a very short old man with a big red nose, a white moustache and beard, with bald head save for the remaining hair tied into a topknot with a yellow ribbon. He wears a green and yellow coat with a red collar over the Stone Shinobi uniform but with both sleeves of his shirt, and a pair of sandals with white socks.

"I'm guessing that you're Onoki, the Tsuchikage?" asked Naruto.

The old man frowned in response "Whoever you are, how dare you use my first name! you Leaf ninja need to learn some manners but it's no surprise since Tsunade is the Hokage,"

"You meet Tsunade-baachan before?"

"Of course I have, I knew her since she was a child before becoming a Sannin. What business do you have here with me, boy?" asked Onoki.

"I came here to find out if you're an impostor or not,"

Onoki quirked an eyebrow at that "And how exactly are you going to prove that?"

"Either you admit the truth or I force it out of you,"

Upon hearing this, Onoki began to floating into the air with his arms crossed and a frown on his face "A little boy like you actually dares face Onoki of the Two Scales? How naively foolish of you, just like your village," he formed a handsign to perform a jutsu **"Earth Style: Earth Golem jutsu!"** the place began to shake then large humanoid creature made of rock rose from the ground and towered over Naruto as Onoki sat atop its head "Time to teach you how to respect your elders!"

"Oh boy," Naruto muttered to himself as he got ready to fight.

**Music Start: Kingdom Hearts II OST; Vim and Vigor**

The golem reached out with its hands to grab Naruto who backflipped several times to maintain a distance between himself and the stone construct, knowing full well the consequences should he get caught. The blonde ninja took out several kunai with explosive tags attached to them and threw at the golem to cause a chain of explosions, the dust cleared to reveal hardly a crack on the golem with Naruto frowning at the lack of any damage.

"You're gonna have to do better than that brat, **Earth Style: Earth Dragon!**" Onoki created a dragon-like head to rise from the ground and rush forwards with jaws wide open to bite him, Naruto leapt into the air and quickly channeled chakra to the soles of his feet as columns of seals were seen glowing brightly on the shin guards then a blue circular platform made of chakra materialized beneath Naruto which he then stepped off to leap higher into the air **"Wind Style: Air Bullets!" **he took in a deep breath whilst concentrating chakra into his lungs before opening his mouth to spew bullets of air rapidly towards Onoki who had the golem cross its arms to block the air bullets **"Shadow Clone jutsu!"** Naruto created several clones to rush alongside him. The golem immediately lashed out by throwing punches to send some of the clones flying while grabbing others and crushing in its grips.

Onoki sensed movement from above and flew off the golem's head in time as Naruto slammed into where he once stood with a Rasengan in hand and frowned in failure of the surprise attack. Onoki sped through a set of handsigns to retaliate with a jutsu **"Earth Style: Stone Fist jutsu!" **he encased his hand in stone and flew towards Naruto with the fist reared back for a punch, the blonde ninja crossed his arms together and triggered the seals on the armguards to create a circular shield of blue chakra to block the incoming attack and used the impact to fling himself off the golem and landed on the ground with a skid.

"Not bad, making a unique usage of seals. It reminds me of that damn Yondaime," said Onoki, growling at the thought of said person with Naruto frowning mentally at the obvious dislike towards his father "Let's see you handle this, **Earth Style: Rock Shuriken!**" large rocks hovered around Onoki and took on the shape of spinning shuriken before launching them towards Naruto who unsheathed his Chakra Blade **"Wind Style: Faithful Wind Blade!"** he channeled wind energy into the blade to form a giant 10-foot condensed blade of wind formed along it, then proceeded to rapidly slice up the rock projectiles before they got any closer to damage him.

"I need to bring an end to this soon, time to bring out the big guns," Naruto took out the Decadriver and strapped it to his waist and took out his signature Rider Card "Henshin!" he inserted the card into the Decadriver and closed it as it then announced

[Kamen Ride: Decade!]

Multiple gray figures surrounded Naruto before converging into him as he transformed into Kamen Rider Decade.

Onoki watched the transformation with a look of interest "Quite a queer tool you have, I'd like to see how it would supposedly aid you in defeating me,"

"You're about to find out and it's not gonna be pleasant," Naruto dusted his hands before opening the Ride Booker and took out a Rider Card which he then inserted into the Decadriver and closed it.

[Kamen Ride: Hibiki!]

Naruto was engulfed in purple flames which died out to reveal him in a new form with the appearance of an Oni, possessing purple and silver armor depicting his muscular physique, a pair of silver horns at the top of his head and red lines decorated his face. Naruto has now become Kamen Rider Hibiki, he reached into the Ride Booker again to bring out another card and inserted into the Decadriver then closing it.

[Attack Ride: Ongekibou Rekka!]

Naruto reached to his back to bring out a pair of taiko drumsticks with the heads appearing as red Oni faces with silver horns and red sticks. Naruto rushed forwards and Onoki had the golem launch a punch with the ninja/rider moving to one side and parrying with the Rekka which unleashed a percussive wave and created multiple cracks along the arm.

"I see, so that's its weakness," said Naruto thoughtfully, now having a way to effectively strike back. This also made the Tsuchikage to be more vigilant as he performed the Rock Shuriken jutsu again and was about to launch them but Naruto had a counter ready as he held up the Rekka to ignite the tops with flames and creating torch-like weapons before swinging them to shoot fireballs, destroying the rock projectiles whilst continuing his charge.

"**Earth Style: Earth Golem jutsu!" **Onoki created more golems albeit smaller to attack Naruto and hold him back. Naruto took to striking the golems with the Rekka with each hit sounding like he was hitting taiko drums, he instinctively fell into a rhythm as he constantly struck from left to right then front with varying speeds like he was playing music before ending with a double thrust of both Rekka with the golems being shattered.

"I've had enough of this, time for you to disappear! **Particle Style: Atomic Dismantling jutsu!**" Onoki hovered a bit from the golem and held his palms close together as a white sphere of energy took then a structure in the form of a white translucent cube surrounded it and expanded rapidly in size before propelling it towards Naruto with the ninja/rider dashing sideways to evade it. Onoki wasn't giving in as he continued to launch more of the potentially deadly attack with Naruto repeatedly dodging them. the Tsuchikage was about to attack ag-

*CRACK*

"ARGH, MY BACK!" Onoki cried out in pain, Naruto would have winced in sympathy but he wasn't going to let this chance go as he dashed forward whilst taking out a Rider Card and inserting it into the Decadriver then closing with the device calling out.

[Final Attack Ride: H-H-Hibiki!]

He arrived right in front of Onoki as the Ongekiko appeared for him to grab and ram it into the Kage's torso for it to enlarge to the size of a large drum whilst holding him in place and Naruto took a stance **"Ongeki Da; Kaen Renda no Kata!"** he proceeded to beat the Ongekiko rapidly with the Rekka up to 30 times with the percussion waves pounding the Kage before ending it with a double strike and triggering an explosion afterwards and jumped off the crumbling golem.

**Music End**

Naruto turned around and watched as the battered form of Onoki flashed for a moment before revealing a puppet similar to the ones he fought previously. the blonde ninja undid his transformation with the Decadriver warping back to his ninja pouch when he heard someone speak up from behind.

"Guess you were right after all, gramps really was a fake," Naruto turned around to see Kurotsuchi standing behind him with her arms crossed and a frown on her face.

"Yeah, and I'm beginning to think that all of the Kages are fakes too," said Naruto thoughtfully.

Suddenly the puppet rose back up and spoke, surprising the duo "Fakes, you say? This was made with the chakra of the real Tsuchikage,"

"What do you mean and just what are your goals for doing all this?" asked Naruto.

"If you want to know so badly, then defeat the Raikage and I will tell you,"

"And where can I find him?"

"You will find him along Demon Way by the Hidden Cloud Village,"

Naruto frowned in response "Fine then, I'll take down the fake Raikage and find out where you're hiding and rescue the Five Kages,"

"Very well, I am so looking forward to meeting you," said the puppet before collapsing to the floor again.

"Going up against the Raikage is a pretty tall order, faker or no. Heard he's the fastest shinobi ever besides the Yellow Flash," Kurotsuchi pointed out, as much as she dislike the Hidden Leaf, she would at least be a bit courteous especially since he helped exposed an impersonator in her village.

"I know, but I don't really have that much of a choice since I need to find the Kages and stop the kidnapper before it's too late," said Naruto with his arms crossed.

"Well, I'll try to hold down the fort while you bring back gramps before the paperwork stacks up and possibly give him a backache from complaining…as usual,"

"Alright then, guess I'll be on my way," Naruto turned around and took off in a sprint to find his way out of the Hollow Airways and send info to Kakashi via a messenger toad to let him know of what happened and where he heading to next.

* * *

Naruto soon arrived at his next destination which is the Demon Way close to the Hidden Cloud village in the Land of Lightning. He was currently within the mountainous region and clouds were actually floating on ground level, the blonde ninja had to admit that the Hidden Cloud village lived up to the name literally.

"Now that I'm here, I should begin my search for the Raikage. I just hope that this won't turn out to be some kind of trap since I'm not seeing anyone around here. Better get a move on as the clock's ticking before chaos hits all the villages," said Naruto thoughtfully.

Naruto proceeded through the mountain trails and had to make sure to watch out for crumbling ledges along the way lest he ends up falling to the valleys below with death waiting for him down there. Things got a bit difficult due to the clouds obscuring his vision but a bit of wind jutsu quickly took care of that and he was back on his way, he was about to advance further when he came across someone familiar.

He is a tall dark-skinned man with shaggy white hair which covers his left eye. He wears a high-collared sleeveless uniform with loose fitting pants, bandages on the wrists and the one strap-over-one-shoulder flak jacket of a Cloud Shinobi. Naruto also took note of the black tattoos on his shoulders and the cleaver-like sword strapped to his back.

"Hey, your name is Darui right?" asked Naruto.

Said person nodded in affirmation before responding "That's my name, in spite of wondering why you're here, I would suggest not going through here any further as it's dangerous ahead,"

"Is the Raikage over there?"

"He's training as of now, and things will get hairy should you go near him,"

"I get it, but it's urgent that I meet him,"

Darui crossed his arms with a small frown "You don't seem to understand, when I said things would get hairy, I meant for me. If anyone interrupts the boss's training, he could go on a rampage,"

"But I need to confirm if he's the real Raikage or an impostor," Naruto insisted.

"Come on, are you pulling my leg?"

"I'm being serious, the Kages of the other nations have been kidnapped and had puppets impersonating them till I exposed them to the others. I need to make sure so I can figure out where the real Kages are," Naruto explained.

"If what you're saying is true, then I wonder…if you're strong enough to beat the supposedly fake Raikage," Darui took a stance as he prepared to fight.

**Music Start: Tekken 5 - Dark Resurrection OST; Tiamat**

Naruto started things off as he lunged at Darui with a jumping roundhouse kick with the latter ducking underneath the incoming attack and retaliated with a rising kick towards Naruto's exposed back, but the blonde ninja-maintained motion with a front roll to dodge before retaking his stance. Darui was the one to take to the offense this time as he rushed up to Naruto and attacked with a combo of punches and kicks with Naruto shifting to defense by deflecting the attacks although he was almost taken by surprise when Darui attack with a blast of lightning so he enshrouded his left arm with wind chakra and deflected it with a backhand.

"Alright then, **Shadow Clone jutsu!**" Naruto crossed the middle and index fingers of both hands to create a group of clones and looked only to be surprised to see Darui forming the same handsign and created a shadow clone to stand next to him and retorted "Don't think you're the only one capable of using the jutsu, although your usage surpasses mine," both of them simultaneously weaved through some handsigns to execute a jutsu **"Lightning Style: Double Black Panthers!"** they began generating black lightning from their bodies which takes on the form of panthers before remotely controlling them to attack Naruto's clones, taking them out swiftly.

"I don't think so, **"Wind style: Gale Wolf!"** he held an open palm out for a spiraling sphere of wind to take form, four wolves made out of the wind emerged from the sphere before charging towards the panthers upon a mental command from Naruto. The elemental beasts repeatedly clawed and bit at each other but eventually destroyed each other, Naruto reckoned that Darui's black lightning is rather strong to be able to hold against its elemental disadvantage, he quickly snapped back into focus upon seeing Darui draw out the cleaver sword and unfolded its blade before charging towards him so he unsheathed the Chakra Blade and held it in a reverse grip.

Both ninjas of differing villages clashed blades with great speed and from varying angles to get an edge over the other. They clashed in the middle once more, but Darui suddenly channeled lightning chakra through his cleaver sword and forced Naruto to let go of his Chakra Blade to avoid getting zapped, the blonde ninja was forced into a total defensive stance as he evaded the swipes from his opponent. Darui was about to press on the attack when he sensed something from behind and leapt into the air to see the Chakra Blade fly into Naruto's hand much to his surprise before attacking with a jutsu **"Lightning Style: Wave of Inspiration!"** he sheathed his cleaver sword and spewed a large wave of water with Naruto leaping into the air to evade it but then Darui formed handsigns while still spewing to infuse lightning into the water much to the blonde's surprise.

"**Wind Style: Air Rider!"** Naruto hovered in the air as he rode on a powerful wind current and was safely above the electrified water pooling on the ground **"Wind Style: Dance of the Fujin!"** he channeled wind chakra into the blade to take on the form of an elongated sword, he flew at Darui with a barrage of sword strikes mixed with twirls, spins and somersaults to drive the Cloud Ninja back from the pressuring assault.

**Music End**

Darui leapt back and took a more relaxed stance "You're pretty good,"

Naruto hovered in the air with the jutsu still active "I'd say the same for you, but you aren't showing your full power,"

"So, you noticed huh?"

"Pretty much, which was why I also held back. I prefer that you fight seriously so I would respond in kind, makes the fight far more worthwhile,"

"No, that's enough. Just go on through," said Darui nonchalantly.

Naruto blinked in confusion "That's it, you're just going to let me go?"

"Well I did try to stop you to an extent, but you've proven to be tougher than I thought. Since I've done by part of the job, I don't need to do anything else,"

"You know, you kinda remind me of a guy I know back in my village. Very lazy but also very smart," said Naruto with a deadpanned expression.

"I'll take that as a compliment, just know that I'm not gonna lift a finger to help you when the boss gets angry," Darui crossed his arms as he said this.

"I don't expect you to," Naruto ran past Darui who placed his hands into his pockets and watched the blonde ninja leave.

"_To think this was the same guy who pleaded for the Uchiha, was it really worth casting one's pride as a shinobi for a Missing Nin who killed their most recent Hokage?" _thought Darui.

Naruto was now reaching to the mountaintops where he made use of the many platforms built into the mountains and cliffs to get across the deep valleys below him. He almost got ambushed by a trio of giant mountain bears but was able to take care of the beasts by knocking them out with chakra enhanced punches and kicks to certain vulnerable spots before moving on. It didn't take him very long to locate the person he was seeking as he landed on a very large platform built to the side of a mountain.

He is a dark-skinned man with a muscular build and blond hair combed back along with a small moustache and goatee. He has fuma shuriken tattoos on both of his shoulders, large golden vambraces on his wrists. He wears a gold belt around his waist with a boar's face engraved in the center, black pants with torn ends, Cloud Nin shinguards, and a pair of black shinobi sandals. All these combined gives him the appearance of a professional wrestler.

"What is it, Leaf Ninja? What do you want from me?" asked A the Raikage.

"There's something which I wish to confirm concerning you," said Naruto.

A scowled at the statement "I am in the middle of training; I do not have the time to be answering questions!"

"At this point, I don't to even ask if you're the real Raikage or not,"

"What you mean by that? Watch your tongue boy!"

"Like hell, I'm gonna rip out that disguise by beating you!" said Naruto with determination.

"How could a boy like you think you can defeat me?" A stared at the blonde ninja with a skeptical glare.

"I need to beat you to find out where the real Kages are being kept prisoner, I don't have time to waste!"

"Boy, it is time I show you just how terrifying my anger can be!" A's body was suddenly wrapped in lightning chakra and Naruto was taken by surprise as he sensed the Raikage's chakra level suddenly skyrocket.

**Music Start: Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2; Gatebreaker**

"_From what Kakashi-sensei and Captain Yamato told me, the Raikage has massive reserves of chakra, and can take in some serious punishment while dealing damage no one can walk away from. He's the reason why Sasuke was so banged up back then. And Kurotsuchi said that he's extremely fast. I'll need to start off strong, hope there's a Rider that can give me an edge,"_ thought Naruto before reaching into the ninja pouch to take out the Decadriver and strapped it to his waist and took out his signature Rider Card "Henshin!" he inserted the card into the Decadriver and closed it as it then announced.

[Kamen Ride: Decade!]

He transformed into Kamen Rider Decade and dusted his hands before taking a combative stance, he hardly blinked and crossed his arms the moment the Raikage disappeared from his sight **"Lightning Straight!"** A reappeared with fist already stretched out in a punch with Naruto having blocked it in time but the force actually sent him stumbling back and hitting the railings of the platform hard enough to dent it. Instincts had him immediately take out a card and insert it into the Decadriver before closing with the device calling out.

[Attack Ride: Barrier!]

"**Guillotine Drop!"** A was already above Naruto and descending towards him with an obviously powerful axe kick, he was almost upon him when a circular shield of magenta pixelated energy appeared in between them and deflected the Raikage's attack before knocking him back but Naruto has swiftly inserted another card into the Decadriver.

[Attack Ride: Invisible!]

A looked up to see Naruto turned invisible and frowned as he couldn't sense the ninja/rider's chakra as well as hear his footsteps, suddenly felt a strike to the ribs then another to the torso, more unseen attacks continued to strike the Raikage but they weren't dealing the expected damage due to the lightning defending him from the attacks and so stood there with barely a flinch before suddenly spinning round and lashing out with a jab which made contact with something and there was a grunt of pain before there was a shimmer in the air and Naruto reappeared with a hand on his chest. In spite of the armor, the power behind that jab was nothing to scoff at, next thing he knew was that A reappeared from behind to grab him and perform a powerful suplex to slam him to the ground with the mountain shaking from the impact.

"Give it up boy, you lack the power and speed to face me," said A sternly.

Naruto groaned as he got back to his feet and glared at the Raikage through the helmet "So I need to be faster than you huh? Then I got just the thing," he reached into the Ride Booker and took out a Rider Card to insert into the Decadriver before closing it.

[Kamen Ride: Kabuto!]

Cyan honeycomb particles of energy spread out from the Decadriver as Naruto now dons a new armor being red, sleek and designed in resemblance of a rhinoceros beetle. Naruto was now Kamen Rider Kabuto with the blonde ninja/rider taking out another card and inserting into the driver.

[Attack Ride: Clock Up!]

Wanting to put an end to this farce of a fight, A rushed up to Naruto and launched a punch to the face with the intent to destroy the helmet only for the fist to phase right through him. This surprised the Raikage but it soon turned into annoyance as the other strikes following after it continued to phase through Naruto. He increased the output of his Lightning Chakra Mode for his next attack **"Elbow Bolt!"** he thrust his elbow with maximum force but Naruto stepped to the side and landed a punch to the gut which actually damaged A who stumbled back in shock.

"_You may be able to move at lightning speed, but as Kabuto…I can move at near lightspeeds!"_ Naruto proceeded to blitz A from all direction with pummeling punches and kicks with the latter stumbling back and forth from every strike. A tried to increase his speed but was unable to even keep up, Naruto was soon standing behind A with his back towards him and holding a card in between his middle and index finger "Time to end this," he inserted the card into the Decadriver and closed it.

[Final Attack Ride: K-K-Kabuto!]

White lightning flowed from the belt buckle to the horn and then to his right leg which he used to perform a 360-roundhouse kick which slammed into A in the head and triggered an explosion with Naruto simply standing there unbothered by it.

**Music End**

Naruto turned around while reverting to his default form as Decade and watched the Raikage's battered flash briefly to reveal yet another puppet, confirming the last of his suspicions "So that makes five, meaning that all of the Kages had been captured,"

The puppet rose and spoke to him like the others before it "So, you were able to defeat all of the Five Kages. Quite an unbelievable feat,"

"Enough games Malice, I already know that it's you," said Naruto, undoing the transformation with the Decadriver warping back into the ninja pouch "How are you even able to have these puppets impersonate the Kages and their skills?"

"That would be because of my Reflective Spirit jutsu," Malice explained through the puppet "It is a forbidden jutsu where I imbue the puppets with chakra I extracted from a subject and create a likeness matching the original in both appearance and quality of their chakra,"

"That explains why the Sensory ninja couldn't tell the difference, no wonder why it's classified as a forbidden jutsu,"

"For the Kages to have been defeated by you, perhaps they aren't as powerful as I thought," said Malice musingly.

"Where are they?" Naruto demanded, there was a puff of smoke and a scroll laid on the ground at his feet.

"Inside the scroll is a map leading to my hidden mansion where they're kept. Come and rescue them if you can," said Malice before the puppet disappeared in a flash.

"You better believe that I can Malice! I'm gonna find you and put a stop to this once and for all!" Naruto picked up the scroll before proceeding to make his way out of the place so he could return to the Hidden Leaf village and make preparations to storm the hideout and rescue the Kages after taking down Malice.

* * *

**This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto arrived close to the Hidden Stone village to seek out the Tsuchikage and find out if he was the real deal or an imitation. He ended up facing Kurotsuchi who's the granddaughter of the Kage and managed to come out on top before going to meet the target and revealing that he was yet another puppet. The blonde ninja's next stop was at the Hidden Cloud village to look for the Raikage, he met the Kage's right hand man being Darui who's rather laidback and didn't even wish to fight that much. Naruto went to face the Raikage and had trouble due to the Kage being one of the fastest besides the Yellow Flash but was able to beat him in the end. Now the time has come for Naruto to meet with the instigator of all this and rescue the Five Kages before it's too late and everything falls into chaos in the Elemental Nations.**

**To those who haven't noticed, I made it that A the Raikage didn't lose his hand in the fight as he was more rational at the time. And before anyone complains, I researched repeatedly to learn and confirm that the Raikage moves at lightning speeds and Minato's Hirashin helps him move at lightspeeds, therefore Naruto using Kabuto's Clock Up to move at near lightspeed makes him faster than the Raikage. **

**The next chapter marks the end of the Fake Kages arc and Naruto begins his journey to the other worlds.**

**Quick question though, would you want Naruto to take up photography and travel on his own or make use of a studio while travelling with others? Respond in the reviews or PMs.**

**This is Hussbek from Ghana.**

**Signing out and hoping that you all stay alive.**


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